Las Vegas, NV - HDTV - Page 10

Just found out that COX is showing the ENTIRE NCAA tournament free to digital customers and 12 of those games will be in HD. The free bonus games channels for digital subscribers will be 333, 334, 335, 336. and the HD games should be on ch 701. More details later.

vegggas

Isn't 701 the Discovery HD channel.

Discovery HD has always been on 700.
This would be the lineup:

Digital feeds from CBS for all digital customers
333 - NCAA 1
334 - NCAA 2
335 - NCAA 3
336 - NCAA 4

High Def channels
700 Discovery HD
701 Scheduled for NCAA tournament from KLAS HD feeds of 12 HD games including the championship game (all HD customers)
710 HBOWH
711 HBOEH
720 SHOWH
721 SHOEH
730 CBSHD Host to tournament CBS programming
731 PBSHD
732 ABCHD
733 NBCHD (if KVBC gets it together next week)

awesome news! nbc coming next week and all the tourney games!
-jb

Did i miss something? NBC is going digital next week?

So would the same thing be on 701 and 730?

Probably not. 730 is the CBS network feed and 701 will be the tournament feed for HD games. If both happen to be showing the same HD game at the same time, the 701 feed probably wont have have any comercials. Also, not all of the CBS games will be in HD, but all of the 701 feeds will be. 730 may show select regional games wheras 701 will show whatever current game is in HD reguardless of region.

Purely SPECULATION!!! This was based on the info provided by "hoopty" on Feb 19, 2003. Link back to page 12 post from hoopty He had info from KVBC stating they were going to an ATSC within two weeks and working on getting an HD feed to COX ASAP. Tomorrow is two weeks...
Also I have seen the mail from COX advertising NBCHD as "coming soon".
I feel very confident they will send HD via fiber to COX any day now, but have no guarantee of what we will see until it is done.
[hoopty or lvthunder, could you send an email to your sources to get an update?]
vegggas

COX has almost completed (within days) the controller software to allow customers who do NOT want digital cable services, but want ONLY the local HD pass through feeds. This still requires a rental (for now) of the HD box, but without ANY of the digital services that you have to pay extra for. The box would default to a state just like analog that will not recieve any digital stations or services like the program guide (have to use the analog guide) except that it picks up the extended basic analog and channels 730-733 ONLY.
I think they will be decrypting the HD feeds and the HD box will be a "dumb" box (like aftermarket boxes and digital TV tuners) that decodes the Qam signal, but has no interactivity. No digital services means no return path communication signal back to the hub or main office. Digital features like the program guide, instant channel decryption (for subscription) and digital PPV purchase through the TV are not possible without the digital interactivity, so customers would not need to pay for those features.
This may explain some of the issues lvthunder was talking about with his box earlier. He had been trying to get just the local HD service for many months, and they may be configuring his box as it gets "dumbed" down and the conversion is complete.

vegggas

Oh yea!!! If they're descrambled, I can just plug my cable into the ANT-DTV and my Mits 55511 will descramble the QAM256 and pow! I'll have HD! No stinkin antenna!

Too bad I just ordered an antenna via buy.com. Doh!!

This is just a guess (unscrambled HD content) but it looks promising. You would still need to get a cable account and have the wiring in the home be able to pass the higher frequency and data HD requires.
It would be nice to see in a few short years all TV's in the house are digital and they all get HD without any extra stuff or antennas

vegggas

Yea, we already got digital cable so its no big deal from that aspect. It'll be nice if NBC starts up soon as speculated too... 4 HD nets... mmmmm

This makes me very happy. I wonder when they will let the CSR's know about this. This makes my decision about what to do for network HD a lot easier. I was leaning towards getting Canadian Satallite but if this is true I'll just stay with local HD from Cox. Too bad the new HDTiVo won't have a QAM tuner in it. I wonder if they will allow basic cable customers access to this or if it will be blocked with the filter. But this is great news.

Has anyone received confirmation that Cox will be carrying ESPN-HD?

I did't think the 2 Canadian Satellite providers Bell Express VU and
Star Choice reached Las Vegas or parts of the U.S.?

I was told that Bell Express VU reached all the way down to Florida. Somewhere I even saw the pointing angles here. I don't remember where though.

I will be moving to Vegas next month, and have a couple of questions for you knowledgeable folks.....

1) how hard is it to receive OTA HD in the area? The home I'm moving into is on the NW end of town.... highway 95 at Durango (just north of 215 & 95).

2) I see that Cox is offering HD broadcasts. Is there a way to time shift Cox HD channels?

I currently use a Mits D-VHS to time shift OTA, and don't want to give up the ability to time shift network HD if at all possible.

I am currently 58 miles from the antennas in LA, and receive OTA via a yagi UHF antenna in the attic. Since I *think* my new home is about 35 miles from the antennas in Vegas, do you think that a Silver Sensor antenna would be sufficient for OTA HD?

Thanks.

I use a silver sensor. My biggest issue is that it seems the spread between the two towers is a little too much, coz I cant seem to get all digital stations in with it pointed in a single direction.

Or maybe I need to spend more time fine tuning it.

I don't think the silver sensor will work. What I've read is that it is UHF only. Most of the HD stations here are the in VHF band not UHF. They are 2 (NBC Coming Soon), 7 (CBS), 9 (FOX), 11 (PBS), and 12 (ABC). There are not a lot of stations left.

I use the Radio Shack Bow. Works fine except I have move it slightly,
when moving back and forth between 8 & 13. For correct aiming
www.antennaweb.org/aw/stations.asp

So far I've been able to pick up CBS perfectly, and PBS, Fox, 22 and 29 intermittently (that is, I get them when I go and stand next to the antenna, when I go and sit down they break up). I'm sure its more of a directional issue vs band.

A quick update on KVBC-DT. Last night, we fired up our ATSC transmitter, on Channel 2, from 3:15am until about 8am. No audio or video was shown, but we did test a 10,000 watt signal for that period of time with a very good S/N ratio.

PLEASE do not expect an NBC signal in the next several days, as we still have bugs to work out. I'll keep you updated as significant events occur.

Also, talk of an HD passthrough to Cox is premature. It's quite likely, but certainly nothing to anticipate in the near future.

Bummer. I was hoping this was imminent.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. As is typical with any install, I'll have to experiment with antennas a bit and see what works.

Any comments on time shifting Cox HD?


Huh? I thought that all HD broadcasts were UHF? They all are in LA, and I thought that digital broadcasts nationwide were to be on the UHF band? Am I wrong?

From my understanding the band is exactly the same as analog TV. Channels 2-13 are VHF and 14 up is UHF. Also I don't think there is any way to timeshift Cox. The box has component out only. I also has a Coax Digital Audio port too.

I live in NW too and currently using TERK TV5 amplified indoor ant. So far so good, it picked up all the digital channels I wanted especially CBS, PBS and ABC (all 100%).
But lately, I have some problem with ABC though. I have to put my hand on it to watch ABC

The HD Channels in Vegas are in the VHF band. This is unusual and different from most other jurisdictions.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to check into VHF antennas after I move.

Ok, it's been three days and no one has posted on this thread. SO, I will rejuvenate it. It is my understanding that Cox will have a "dedicated" CBS channel for HD on the tourney coverage. If/when we go to war in Iraq, has there been any talk about keeping the CBS "back channels" to the tournament. I don't mean to be insensitive, but if it happens I will have two tv's going and I know we will all need a break from the war coverage.

Well remember that Cox Digicable customers get all games for free anyways. It wouldnt surprise me if Cox just sets up another channel (for 4 total) for the games and then ch 8 for the war coverage. And there is still the HD channel for showing the HD games in the tourney. I'm sure CBS wont stop televising all the games if the war starts (I would assume that lots of cable companies have the same type of deal Cox has to show all the games). And I agree, being able to watch basketball would be a needed diversion from the war coverage.