Las Vegas, NV - HDTV - Page 91

My guess is that Cox is providing us with TNT and Universal HD because THEY got them CHEAP.
But ESPN 2 HD is a no-no. I'm sick of it.

And DirecTV customers like me are waiting for TNT-HD.

One word to describe the overall experience of NBC's Breeder's Cup HD coverage via Cox. "Horrible". At least most of the featured race at the end was decent. But dropouts and tiling were frequent during a majority of the broadcast. Strange mic setup for the 5.1, also. Interesting, but strange.

Nothing really that good on those channels.
UHD is a complete waste of time so far.

I only watched a few mins of this off and on, and I can say I saw problems on my OTA feed, so I dont think it was a total cox issue for u.

Hello McFly... Ya got yer thinkin hat on???
COX doesn't broadcast NBC - KVBC broadcasts NBC. Cox is just a repeater for the local stations. The only thing you would see from a cable point of failure would be the total loss of service if the modulator went down and that would also take down the adjacent HD channel on the same modulator. It was a feed issue.

vegggas

NBC's national HD transmission path is more prone to failure and interruptions than the other networks because they use a Ku band uplink. The "tiling" was probaly caused the lack of bandwidth caused by NBC Weather Minus. I've read in these forums that NBCs in other markets have gotten better after their stations installed new mpeg2 encoders, but I wouldn't count on KVBC having that scheduled in their budgets just yet.

Re: High Definitiopn DVDs

According to Soundvision Magazine, Samsung has announced the release of an HD DVD Player/Recorder which will handle BOTH the Blue-Ray AND HD-DVD formats. As you all know, right now, there is a format war between the two, which is seemingly unresolvable. The release is scheduled for the spring of next year. No price is quoted. But that's good news iin my view. At least we now know that such a player/recorder CAN be created. And if so, competition from Sony, Denon, Pioneer, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, etc, will not be far behind.

The two HD Disk technologies are very similar from a hardware POV and it's been known for a while that manufacturers can and will do this. What you will NOT see is SONY making a HD-DVD compatible player, or Toshiba making a BR-DVD compatible player. You will also not see a BR-DVD enabled PC component for a while as MS is not backing it yet either.
In the end, usually the lower priced hybrids don't seem to fare as well as a dedicated unit. DVD-A vs. SACD is a good example. Low priced SACD or DVD-A players sound very good alone, but low priced combo units (that have to license [pay royalties] to both technologies) often use lesser quality DAC's and other parts to make up for the fees. This puts them in a place to still make a profit and put them into a low price category for sales, albeit, with a lesser quality product. Sony still won't make a DVD-A compatible player, and will not release the high royalty fees associated with SACD. Ths makes good quality hybrid players cost several times more than the good level players of each dedicated design, although the hardware is shared across the two platforms. Because of this and consumer confusion between the formats, high resoultion multichannel music is going toward the Dual Disk formats, which is a hodge podge of CD and often low resolution PCM stereo or Dolby Digital music.

There is a big thread over on the HD hardware section about this...

vegggas

Looks like Cox Communications just got sold!

Cox only sold selected systems:

"The agreement includes cable television systems in West Texas, North Carolina, Humboldt County and Bakersfield, California; and much of Middle America. "

What's the difference if Cox gets sold?

In my view their service and offerings can't be any worse than they are now.

Cox Communications is not being sold, but Cox cable is selling off some of their smaller, geographically remote cable areas to focus on it's regional cable markets with digital plans already in place. Cox is trying to standardize their markets with the same services of Cable, HD & Digital Cable, IP Telephony and High Speed Internet to provide a nationwide similar product. Those markets sold were seemingly not technically able to do so and a third party will be more equipped to handle their progression and Cox can re-invest in the other markets to bring them all together. The good news to Las Vegas is that they will be more focused on our (and others) market than wasting money on analog only or limited systems that need a structure overhaul to accomodate growth.
Cebridge Connections, Inc is buying the package deal of several smaller television markets in a geographic area next year, which would make them the 8th largest U.S. cable operator. Cox will remain the 3rd largest provider behind Comcast and Time Warner.
This is actually good news! Support for so many differnt system and platforms must have been a burdon, but movig forward with similar technologies and platforms will get them to move ahead farther and faster.

Word - He just has no idea how bad other markets are... The Las Vegas Market is actually one of the better markets in the country. It just doesn't have the "All Baseball in HD Channel" that he wants. He should buy the Bakersfield system and make it the way he wants!

vegggas

Anybody watching the Spurs game tonight on TNT-HD? The audio is horrible with a lot of drops. It is almost unwatchable at times.

KTNV got a HD character generator in and now they run a giant "13 Action News KTNV-DT Las Vegas" logo running constantly (even through commercials) in the lower left when you view their digital channels. Between this and the stretch-o-vision I have to wonder if their management policy is simply to piss viewers off.

I like the new "transparant" logo on the Left better than the old. It's not as obtrusive as the hard logo as it appears on the right, but still a bit too large. I wonder if this is part of their studio upgrades, and maybe we will see a non-stretched version soon?

vegggas

Why did Cox sell off some of it's cable systems?
Looks like they just made a major agreement (along with Comcast and Time Warner) with Sprint to offer wireless cable services. You will soon be able to watch your DVR programs on the go, and set up new recordings while away...

Link to AVS press release with links to Sprint and demo, etc

vegggas

Speaking of Sound and Vision and Blu-Ray...There is an HDTV demo with a BR player put on by Sony and S&V at the RC Willey on Town Center tonight at 7. Sorry for the late notice, I just found it myself!

Actually, KVBC is using the new mpeg2 encoder. The problem is the network is not using enough bandwidth to feed the signal to its affiliates.

If that's the case, the folks that say Norte Dame football looks fine on their NBC affiliate must be legally blind. KVBC macroblocks so badly that at times on live sports that it looks like an old atari game.

Recently moved to Tucson (another Cox market). They offer PBS and CBS HD. No agreement with Fox, ABC or NBC. I do miss Las Vegas HD.

I have very little to complain about in terms of what Cox DOES offer. But I don't think they offer enough. Las Vegas is the FASTEST growing Metropolitan area in the nation. But still we are treated as second class citizens. The HD offerings in this city should rival those offered in NY, Boston, Chicago, Phila and Los Angeles. And until such time as that becomes a reality, I will be carping and complaining about it.

And telling me what other cities lack is both beside the point and doesn't make me feel lucky or happier. I'm interested in where I live. And nowhere else.

What HD offerings do these markets have that LV does not?

Columbia, SC [not exactly a metropolitan hotbed] carried HDNet - not sure why Cox isn't on board, particularly with the new NHL broadcasts.

Again, that is a network issue. Many NBC affiliates have been complaining about the network's HD coverage of live events. The tiling that you saw during the Notre Dame-USC game on KVBC also occurred on the rebroadcast on Universal HD.

In order to be fair, why dont you complain about D* also? Didn't you get a dish for baseball coverage?? They have Las Vegas listed as the 48th largest TV market , hence we will have to wait a long time before getting new MPEG 4 service.

I AM being fair!!!

DirectV has to cover the entire nation (and probably more than that as well). Local Cox Cable has to cover Las Vegas and nearby surrounding communities and NOTHING ELSE.

Hence, it ought to be easier for Cox to provide additional services since the territory they must cover is relatively limited. I got DirectV in order to receive the Fox Regional Networks. (especially during the baseball season). Now that baseball is over for this year, I have suspended ny DirectV service until March 1st, 2006. It cost nothing to do that. All equipment remains in place and may be activated sooner (or later) than March 1st, at my option and convenience.

And finally, I really don't know what MPEG4 service would provide, and frankly I don't care. I have DirectV EXCLUSIVELY for baseball coverage, AND NOTHING ELSE interests me.

You really don't care what Cox does or does not provide, as long as it suits YOUR tastes...

YES!!! That's ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

Why should I worry about satisfying the tastes of other customers?

If there were competing cable systems available, you can be sure that I would use the one that satisfies my tastes most completely. What's wrong with that?? I don't pay your bills and you don't pay mine. Being satisfied with the lowest common denominator and the lowest level of service available is not to my taste.
If everyone had my attitude and was willing to PAY for the desired services, you can bet that Cox (or any other cable company) would be acting like whirling dervishes to satisfy us.

The problem is that you expect the cable companies to cater to YOUR tastes exclusively, not the majority, and not the most lucrative or cost effective way for them. Sucks for you, but the universe doesn't revolve around you. No one said life was fair...