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Colorado Springs, CO - HDTV - Page 223

post #6661 of 6801
2/10/11 at 12:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnsean View Post

Hi-

I use an HDHomerun tuner to watch unencrypted QAM channels (both SD and HD, basically all the local channels) from the Comcast feed. It's worked like a charm for the last 18 months, but sometime in the last few days, it seems all the HD channels won't tune in anymore. The SD channels are fine, I can still pull those in. Is anyone aware of a change recently that would explain this?

Thanks,
Sean

I'm just grasping a little here. I watch and record OTA with tuners and use BeyondTv, so I'm not completely familiar with your situation but do understand what you're saying.

I don't have Comcast, so I'm not sure which channels you are referring to. When you say SD and HD, do you mean the Comcast cable channels are SD and you only have a standard STB, not an HD STB? If so, it sounds like they may have remapped the local channels and you may have to map them manually. Also, I've heard Comcast did away with QAM in some areas, and maybe just did here? You may need to call them and hope you get a CSR or Tech that has a clue. I've seem posts that a some of them never heard of QAM.

What software are you using with the HD Homerun?
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post #6662 of 6801
2/11/11 at 9:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post

I'm just grasping a little here. I watch and record OTA with tuners and use BeyondTv, so I'm not completely familiar with your situation but do understand what you're saying.

I don't have Comcast, so I'm not sure which channels you are referring to. When you say SD and HD, do you mean the Comcast cable channels are SD and you only have a standard STB, not an HD STB? If so, it sounds like they may have remapped the local channels and you may have to map them manually. Also, I've heard Comcast did away with QAM in some areas, and maybe just did here? You may need to call them and hope you get a CSR or Tech that has a clue. I've seem posts that a some of them never heard of QAM.

What software are you using with the HD Homerun?

Hi-

I don't have a Comcast STB. In fact I don't have Comcast TV service at all, I only have Comcast internet. However, for the last 18 months I've been able to use my HDHomerun to tune into QAM broadcasts (both SD and HD) that are present on the same coax cable that brings me my internet service (I just use a basic splitter in front of my cable modem and plug one output from the splitter into my HDHomerun). Comcast broadcasts local channels in SD and HD, unencrypted, on their network (or, at least they did until the last few days).

A few months ago they remapped some of the HD channels, but all I had to do was rescan and I found them again. Now it seems they've done something that actually prevents the HD channel lock (I see the signal strength at 99-100%, but the tuner can't get lock). SD channels still work fine.

-Sean

P.S. I'm using MythTV for my general viewing, but for testing purposes I'm just using an HDHomerun utility on my Mac that shows the raw feed, signal strength, etc. directly off the tuner.
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post #6663 of 6801
2/11/11 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnsean View Post

Hi-

I don't have a Comcast STB. In fact I don't have Comcast TV service at all, I only have Comcast internet. However, for the last 18 months I've been able to use my HDHomerun to tune into QAM broadcasts (both SD and HD) that are present on the same coax cable that brings me my internet service (I just use a basic splitter in front of my cable modem and plug one output from the splitter into my HDHomerun). Comcast broadcasts local channels in SD and HD, unencrypted, on their network (or, at least they did until the last few days).

A few months ago they remapped some of the HD channels, but all I had to do was rescan and I found them again. Now it seems they've done something that actually prevents the HD channel lock (I see the signal strength at 99-100%, but the tuner can't get lock). SD channels still work fine.

-Sean

P.S. I'm using MythTV for my general viewing, but for testing purposes I'm just using an HDHomerun utility on my Mac that shows the raw feed, signal strength, etc. directly off the tuner.

Sounds like they did cut it off. I think I remember seeing a thread on the Snapstream forum where someone said the same thing regarding Comcast, except I believe they couldn't even get the SD. You should be able to get the locals OTA anyway.

I'm having Comcast internet installed today (my 6-month Qwest to Comcast specials switch), so when I get a chance I'll run a split into one of my tuners and see what I get. Might be next week, but I'll let you know what I get out of it.
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post #6664 of 6801
2/11/11 at 12:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post
Sounds like they did cut it off. I think I remember seeing a thread on the Snapstream forum where someone said the same thing regarding Comcast, except I believe they couldn't even get the SD. You should be able to get the locals OTA anyway.

I'm having Comcast internet installed today (my 6-month Qwest to Comcast specials switch), so when I get a chance I'll run a split into one of my tuners and see what I get. Might be next week, but I'll let you know what I get out of it.
Thanks, that'd be great.

Regards,
Sean
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post #6665 of 6801
2/13/11 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnsean View Post

Thanks, that'd be great. Regards,
Sean

Got the internet service installed yesterday. Split it and ran it to the tuner on my Philips plasma. Showed it picked up 465 digital and 21 analog channels (noticed a lot have nothing, though). It did pick up all the local QAM feeds in HD.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I may take a look at what's available and throw another tuner into one of my HTPCs. Noticed some of the SD channels really aren't that bad, especially if the TV does upconversion. I was surprised it had all the KBDI channels (which I get OTA anyway) and the SD on those is generally very good.

I noticed the SD lately on 11.2 and 21.2 is very good also, but now that they've got 57.1 going I wish they'd switch 21.2 back to Retro TV - I miss Get Smart, Streets of San Francisco and Airwolf.
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post #6666 of 6801
2/14/11 at 8:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post

Got the internet service installed yesterday. Split it and ran it to the tuner on my Philips plasma. Showed it picked up 465 digital and 21 analog channels (noticed a lot have nothing, though). It did pick up all the local QAM feeds in HD.

Hrm, dang. OK thanks for checking. That's how it used to be in my house, but something changed about a week ago and now I can't tune in any of the HD's. It's not my tuner - I tried my TV's tuner and my HDHomerun, and neither work on the HD's anymore (SD's are still fine). Wonder if they added some sort of filter in the neighborhood or something. Grrrr. No more free lunch I guess.

Now it's time to beef up the roof antenna I guess. I can get PBS, CBS, and ABC pretty consistently. FOX is 50-50. NBC is totally hit and miss, sometimes it's ok, but mostly I get nothing. Going to try a preamp and hope for the best.

-Sean
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post #6667 of 6801
2/15/11 at 8:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnsean View Post

Hrm, dang. OK thanks for checking. That's how it used to be in my house, but something changed about a week ago and now I can't tune in any of the HD's. It's not my tuner - I tried my TV's tuner and my HDHomerun, and neither work on the HD's anymore (SD's are still fine). Wonder if they added some sort of filter in the neighborhood or something. Grrrr. No more free lunch I guess.

Now it's time to beef up the roof antenna I guess. I can get PBS, CBS, and ABC pretty consistently. FOX is 50-50. NBC is totally hit and miss, sometimes it's ok, but mostly I get nothing. Going to try a preamp and hope for the best.

-Sean

I've been having the same problem starting on the 10th as well.
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post #6668 of 6801
2/16/11 at 8:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post
Anyone else notice the deterioration of pq on KKTV lately (OTA). I noticed it during the college football season watching SEC games. Turned on the NFL game today and it's really poor. Not an equipment problem since all other locals are fine and games on KOAA yesterday were excellent. Their sports used to have great pq. I've even noticed it on their regular shows.
Wow. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed. KKTV has become awful OTA. It seems the channel shift causing everyone to re-scan has made things worse. Only KKTV seems pixelated in fast moving scenes. My other OTA channels are fine. Wonder what's up. Didn't have this issue before the shift. :-(
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post #6669 of 6801
2/16/11 at 9:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fivestarav View Post
Wow. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed. KKTV has become awful OTA. It seems the channel shift causing everyone to re-scan has made things worse. Only KKTV seems pixelated in fast moving scenes. My other OTA channels are fine. Wonder what's up. Didn't have this issue before the shift. :-(
Glad you responded. Thought I might be the only one. I also see the problem with Dish and Comcast.

I called KKTV and talked to the engineer before the change and he thought the change might help, but I don't think it has either. Getting a lot of motion blur that I don't get on other stations, even KOAA which is also 1020i and would have more of a tendency to motion blur than the 720p channels Fox and ABC.

It has to be a local problem because I've seen posts from other markets and they rave on how good CBS is.

If anyone else is noticing, call the station and let them know.
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post #6670 of 6801
2/17/11 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post

Glad you responded. Thought I might be the only one. I also see the problem with Dish and Comcast.

I called KKTV and talked to the engineer before the change and he thought the change might help, but I don't think it has either. Getting a lot of motion blur that I don't get on other stations, even KOAA which is also 1020i and would have more of a tendency to motion blur than the 720p channels Fox and ABC.

It has to be a local problem because I've seen posts from other markets and they rave on how good CBS is.

If anyone else is noticing, call the station and let them know.

I sent an e-mail to KKTV about the poor picture quality and got this reply:

"We are testing some new mobile technology and adjusting our bandwidth. We should be back to normal soon. Thank you for your patience."

An honest reply. I have faith things will be better soon.
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post #6671 of 6801
2/17/11 at 5:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fivestarav View Post

I sent an e-mail to KKTV about the poor picture quality and got this reply:

"We are testing some new mobile technology and adjusting our bandwidth. We should be back to normal soon. Thank you for your patience."

An honest reply. I have faith things will be better soon.

Glad to hear it. They had great PQ before. I remember when I first hooked up my antenna with my new plasma in 2006. A couple of the first things I saw were March Madness and the Masters, both on CBS, and was blown away by the picture. Of course now we're all getting a bit jaded and expectations are higher.
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post #6672 of 6801
4/10/11 at 2:56pm
Hi everyone,

Long time no see for this thread but I haven't been using OTA for quite some time.

But I'm considering going the Ceton Cablecard HTPC tuner route or just another cablecard tuner route and had a couple questions.

Does Comcast here in the Springs usually do copy once or copy freely on their programming?
Also, does Comcast do any SDV (Switched Digital Video) which would possibly require a tuning adapter from comcast for the cablecard to be able to receive the channel?

Thanks!

Here's an article that explains this a bit for anyone interested: http://hd.engadget.com/2009/09/24/a-...-windows-7-me/
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post #6673 of 6801
6/1/11 at 9:13am
Comcast here in Pueblo is pissing me off. I'm watching The Price is Right now, Actually I'm TRYING to watch TPiR. Skipping and artifacting all over the place. They need to stop overcompressing the signals.
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post #6674 of 6801
6/1/11 at 9:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockinricky View Post

Comcast here in Pueblo is pissing me off. I'm watching The Price is Right now, Actually I'm TRYING to watch TPiR. Skipping and artifacting all over the place. They need to stop overcompressing the signals.

I have OTA and cable thru Comcast (only via my internet service - for some reason they don't block some channels).

I just turned on the TV and checked both OTA and the Comcast feed. Both are fine right now. When I first turned it on, there was no signal on the Comcast feed, but that only lasted a minute or so.

The problem may be KKTV. They have had problems with their signals for some time. Their PQ is horrible - far the worst of all the locals - the rest of which are very good. Comcast actually has an advantage in that they get their feed by fibre optic cable, not OTA. That's why they have a signal when the KKTV transmitters go out and the OTA and satellites are blank. This is something I question as it gives Comcast an advantage and is another step in getting rid of OTA and forcing subscriptions to either cable or satellite. And don't think that's not part of Comcast's agenda since they own the FCC anyway.
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post #6675 of 6801
6/4/11 at 11:36am
Does anybody else on Comcast in Pueblo have problems with the Weather Channel on Saturdays? It seems like every Saturday, the Weather Channel goes down or something, and won't come in. I don't think it's a TWC problem, because it happens EVERY week. The public access channels (17, 18, 19 and 22), Telemundo and Univision do the same thing. Only on Saturday mornings and afternoons. It usually clears up in the evening. It can't be weather or line related or else it would happen daily and affect all channels.
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post #6676 of 6801
6/8/11 at 11:34am
I think the problems I've been having with KKTV and Comcast are somewhere between KKTV and Comcast. I had the same problem with KXRM (skipping and artifacting, KKTV and KXRM must use the same fiber connection to Comcast). I just went OTA for KKTV reception, and I get better reception over the air with a mis-aligned antenna than I get with Comcast. Weird.
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post #6677 of 6801
6/16/11 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockinricky View Post
I think the problems I've been having with KKTV and Comcast are somewhere between KKTV and Comcast. I had the same problem with KXRM (skipping and artifacting, KKTV and KXRM must use the same fiber connection to Comcast). I just went OTA for KKTV reception, and I get better reception over the air with a mis-aligned antenna than I get with Comcast. Weird.
Quoting myself here. As a test I connected the cable to my PC (Hauppauge HVR-1600). Still bad reception on KKTV and KXRM. All others just fine. I still think the problem is with KaKaTV, not Comcast. OTA just fine.
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post #6678 of 6801
6/27/11 at 2:15pm
Ricky, I've had major macroblocking (tiling) for up to 15 seconds every once in a while on some of my HD channels on comcast. I called them and they claimed no responsibility. They said "did you check you cable connections?" I said "i doubt that this is the problem since the TV freezes then recovers". I understand that it is a POSSIBLE issue but not a likely one in my case. I need to double check my splitter outside. But I find it interesting they you think they are overcompressing the signal and then when there's an extra burst of network traffic, the tv bandwidth comes to a crawl, hence the screen freezing issue. This certainly sounds plausible to me.

Anyone else out there experience this issue with comcast? This is very infuriating, especially when I'm paying a hundred bucks for the "pleasure".
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post #6679 of 6801
6/28/11 at 3:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gman76 View Post
Ricky, I've had major macroblocking (tiling) for up to 15 seconds every once in a while on some of my HD channels on comcast. I called them and they claimed no responsibility. They said "did you check you cable connections?" I said "i doubt that this is the problem since the TV freezes then recovers". I understand that it is a POSSIBLE issue but not a likely one in my case. I need to double check my splitter outside. But I find it interesting they you think they are overcompressing the signal and then when there's an extra burst of network traffic, the tv bandwidth comes to a crawl, hence the screen freezing issue. This certainly sounds plausible to me.

Anyone else out there experience this issue with comcast? This is very infuriating, especially when I'm paying a hundred bucks for the "pleasure".
I did some more testing, and I think we both may have the same problem. Crappy signal splitters, the Bane Of Every Cable Subscriber's Existence. I still think they may be overcompressing the signal, especially in the daytime. I even see macroblocking on the SD broadcast of The Price is Right. It's especially noticeable during fast camera movement, such as the 'Come On Down!' parts when the camera does rapid sweeps over the audience.
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post #6680 of 6801
6/28/11 at 4:36pm
OK, suppose I have a bad/marginal splitter. If comcast makes a visit and determines that the splitter is indeed the problem, do I pay or they pay for a new one? It's about 14 yrs old but looks like a decent one.
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post #6681 of 6801
6/28/11 at 5:21pm
14 yrs old it may be deteriorating, but I've got some in my Mother's house that are probably 30 years old and still work with Comcast. If Comcast installed it it's a good one. If you just go down to the office they'll give you one and it'll either fix it or eliminate that as a possibility and may save you wasting time for a service call.
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post #6682 of 6801
6/29/11 at 2:55pm
Thanks for the tip. I also wonder what the round can is, a notch or bandpass filter? I cant remember if it's on the cable modem line or TV line. I'll check tonite. If it is a filter, is it supposed to be for the cable modem?
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post #6683 of 6801
8/9/11 at 6:10pm
I am (sadly) moving from Colorado Springs to DC for a new job. The sad part is that I won't have space in the new rental for my home theater. I built a custom 2.35:1 screen using black-out fabric that measures 54" tall by 127" wide. It has a wood frame covered with black fabric. You can see a picture at:
http://www.zuggsoft.com/house/home_theater.htm

I know we are not supposed to sell anything in these forums and so I'm not selling this. I'm willing to give it away to anybody in the local area who wants it and who can pick it up and take it away. I just want it to go to a good home. It's been a great screen for me for the past 10 years.

The screen itself is 1:1 power with excellent off-axis viewing. I've been very impressed with how well it worked for a DIY screen and will probably make one again in the future when I eventually move to a bigger place and build a new theater.

Please PM me if you are interested. I'd hate to see this nice screen go into the trash.
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post #6684 of 6801
8/12/11 at 3:39pm
Screen is spoken for. Glad it found a good home. Thanks guys!
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post #6685 of 6801
8/12/11 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeP View Post
Screen is spoken for. Glad it found a good home. Thanks guys!
Good luck in your new home and job. Hope you're going there to straighten them out.
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post #6686 of 6801
8/13/11 at 7:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsilvest View Post

Good luck in your new home and job. Hope you're going there to straighten them out.

I will buy him his next screen and deliver it personally if he can swing that tall order.
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post #6687 of 6801
8/15/11 at 8:26pm
Quick update: Comcast came to the house and found my signal level was low. This likely explains the macroblocking/tiling I'm getting on the HD channels. We shall see if this solves the problem. Anyway I had -11db level instead of their preferred -8db to +8db range. They installed an amplifier. My level is now +4db. That was a week ago. I've seen some tiling since, but not nearly as much. The filter on the TV line blocked low freq, I now get the on demand stuff. Not really a big deal but the family uses it a bit now.
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post #6688 of 6801
9/3/11 at 8:42pm
What's up with Fox21 broadcasting Friends in widescreen? Horribly grainy and it didn't appear to be the old ugly stretch o' vision.
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post #6689 of 6801
9/5/11 at 7:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gman76 View Post

Quick update: Comcast came to the house and found my signal level was low. This likely explains the macroblocking/tiling I'm getting on the HD channels. We shall see if this solves the problem. Anyway I had -11db level instead of their preferred -8db to +8db range. They installed an amplifier. My level is now +4db. That was a week ago. I've seen some tiling since, but not nearly as much. The filter on the TV line blocked low freq, I now get the on demand stuff. Not really a big deal but the family uses it a bit now.

I quit Dish about 7 months ago and didn't miss it at all. I just subscribed to Concrap just for the college football season. Their PQ is far worse than Dish overall so they must be compressing some of the HD quite a bit. Haven't had macroblocking, but really noticed on Fox News the video clips are all washed out and some of the HD is very grainy. It's really noticeable to me because most of what I watch is OTA and the picture is so superior to either sat/cable.
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post #6690 of 6801
9/5/11 at 7:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by springsHD=Horrid View Post

What's up with Fox21 broadcasting Friends in widescreen? Horribly grainy and it didn't appear to be the old ugly stretch o' vision.

It's actually on CW which Fox is still showing on their sub-channel. I don't watch that show (didn't watch it in prime time) but have noticed that some shows in SD are being shown in 16:9 on the sub channels and also your TV may be automatically stretching it depending on the settings. You didn't say if you were using a CRT or HDTV, but if it's HD try watching on 57.1 and see how it looks.
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