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Mobile, AL / Panama City, FL - HDTV - Page 6

post #151 of 4065
12/19/02 at 5:04am
Is anyone in the Mobile/Theodore area having a problem receiving WJTC 44-1 on the new Samsung TS-160 HD STB?

For a short time I had the Hughes E86 and it picked up UPN 44 just fine, the Samsung has a lot of seemingly random pixelation. Got an idea it;ps the receiver.

Thakns J C
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post #152 of 4065
12/19/02 at 6:43am
JC pm Rick Steverson. You can find him on page 6 on this thread. He has a Samsung and lives about as far east of the tower as you live west. Just guessing, you are about 50 plus miles from the tower. Check here.
http://100kwatts.tmi.net/tv/MOB.html
WJTC does not look as good as 5.1 10.1 or 15.1 because 44.1 just upconverts analog to digital.It is not true [digital]. WEAR does the same thing.
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post #153 of 4065
12/19/02 at 9:06am
i was having trouble getting 15.1 and 44.1, then i tweaked my antenna about 6 inches and pulled them in great. Then yesterday 44.1 started dropping out (after several days of good behavior) and now this morning 15.1 is starting to drop out. In my scenario i think its because some *******s are building a house with a tall roof in the direct line of sight my antenna is pointing. could this be the cause? or is it more possible the antenna moved back a little?

That said Tim Reid is really helpful in getting your antenna pointed in the right direction. You might give him an email with your exact location.
treid@wpmi.com


d
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post #154 of 4065
12/19/02 at 10:04am
Just wanted to throw this out, but could our abnormal weather conditions be affecting our dtv signals this much?

Also anyone know why we get dolby digital 5.1 from cbs, when the national cbs doesn't even have 5.1 yet? I'm not complaining just curious
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post #155 of 4065
12/19/02 at 10:27am
I get CBS NY HD and they have digital pro logic. Must be a local thing. Bob Ross of CBS said previously that CBS was installing the 5.1 equipment, but I do not know the completion date.
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post #156 of 4065
12/19/02 at 10:34am
WKRG has had stereo for years. Jim e-mail me about a month ago and said he was going to switch to 5.1. When the wind blows like today it affects my signal. I'm going to get a bigger pole and go a little higher and tie it down. Right now it sways in the wind.
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post #157 of 4065
12/19/02 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
JC,

I've got the older version, the Samsung SIR-T150. I don't tune UPN that often, as I mainly go to the STB when I'm watching HD programming and go back to cable for regular SD programming. Anyway, I have a occasional problem with pixelation on WMPI and WSRE and those are strong signals. Sometimes it gets very bad and I found that powering down the box for a few seconds clears that up.

The occasional problems can sometimes appear to be related to multipath, as they appear when aircraft are flying over. I'm near Hulbert AFB airfield, so the planes are big, low, and slow (AC130 gunships). The only thing that would help would be a better antenna with a tighter directional reception pattern, or repositioning the antenna.

The fact that some really bad pixelation problems can be cleared up by powering down the STB suggest that the decoder circuits are not perfect. And I'm talking bad pixelation, so bad that sections of several frames of images can be on-screen at the same time, making the image impossible to watch. Luckly, the really bad pixelation is rare and the fix is simple I can live with it. I would suggest you check the HDTV Hardware area to see if other 160 users in other parts of the country have any problems/fixes for this STB.

All in all, DTV with an antenna is much better than regular TV by antenna in my area. The amount of pixelation/dropouts is very small.

Anyway, welcome to our little reception chit-chat. Be sure to email some of the stations here in the area, it helps to let them know they got a growing population of viewers with HDTV STB. Just this past spring, the engineer at WKRG was quoted as saying there weren't but maybe 10-15 viewers for DTV in this whole area.
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post #158 of 4065
12/20/02 at 2:50pm
Thread Starter 
Bummer!

Watched UPN last night for a little bit and was getting lots of pixelation. Same today. I don't remember it being this lousy. My other stations are fine and the power down doesn't do anything for this problem. I think we may have a problem with the station. What are the rest of you guys seeing.from UPN 44/45?
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post #159 of 4065
12/20/02 at 3:20pm
WEAR/ABC's local station manager is Carl Leahy. His email address is cleahy@sbgnet.com. Everyone in the Pensacola area or any other area that wants to help us out, please send him a nice email, trying to persuade him to push Sinclair for funding for the equipment to pass through the ABC HD programming. He does not think that there are many HD viewers in this area. Let's persuade him otherwise, but be nice. No jumping on Sinclair.
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post #160 of 4065
12/20/02 at 3:27pm
I talked to tim reid and this was his response. It improved my signal a good bit, but only at about 80% on both nbc and upn. Upn seems to be the most inconsistent. Here's what he said for what its worth. May be good to get some people from other ares talking to him, he is very interested in getting the signal to everyone.

"I hope the weather doesn't affect your signal that much. I rebooted
our encoders and switched to the backup exciter on the transmitter.
We did not see the blocking here at the station in Mobile. Thanks for
the info.

Regards,

Tim Reid
Director of Engineering
WPMI-TV NBC 15/DT47
WJTC-TV UPN 44/DT45
661 Azalea Road
Mobile, Al 36609
"
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post #161 of 4065
12/20/02 at 3:51pm
jerry,

Carl is a friend of mine which is why I was wondering if the station manager had any input in the HD decision. I will set something up with him after Christmas. If you have any useful info you would like for me to provide to him, let me know.
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post #162 of 4065
12/24/02 at 7:52am
I just got an email from Cox in Pensacola and they said that the anticipate adding HD in March 2003. Two months ago they were saying the end of 2003. I have basic cable for my internet connection and Dish for everything else. Since they will carry the locals in HD, I will probably switch. I would guess that this date would apply to FWB also. Anyone in Fort Walton heard anything from Cox.
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post #163 of 4065
12/24/02 at 11:51am
Hi guys! We just purchased an RCA widescreen hdtv and a Winegard 8200 antenna in the last two weeks. We don't have an amp or anything else. So far we receive all PBS's, WPMI and like those of you that I went back and read, we can get Fox but no sound. We have our antenna at 35' but are going to talk to FWB about going higher. I also emailed WEAR to let them know we are disappointed in them. I thought you could only get true HDTV from over the air, not cable? We did all this cuz we want to cancel cable.
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post #164 of 4065
12/24/02 at 3:14pm
Linda,

You can get most of the networks in HD or widescreen without cable. You do need a OTA(over the air) HD receiver. Does your RCA have a built in HD reciever for OTA. If not you will need to buy one.
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post #165 of 4065
12/24/02 at 8:08pm
Yes, it was one of only 3 that had hd built in (that we could find)and also has direct tv built in. I loved seeing Crossing Jordan last week in HD. I was only curious about cable because I saw in a few posts that cable is supposed to be getting hd and I thought it was only OTA. I did a lot of research over a two month period before deciding to buy the antenna, rotator and tv set . So far we are very happy with it all, except, of course, ABC & FOX.
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post #166 of 4065
12/24/02 at 11:16pm
Was in Best Buy in P'cola toady and noticed sign saying that Comcast was broadcasting HD. Is this for real? I saw that Comcast just started HD in Sarasota but hadn't read anything about our area. Also for anyone in the local area with a UM receiver, another HD channel became available a couple of days ago, email me if you need the details.

Bob H.
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post #167 of 4065
12/25/02 at 4:57pm
What is a UM receiver?
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post #168 of 4065
12/26/02 at 7:16am
Thread Starter 
Linda, welcome to HDTV world. Where are you at in Ft. Walton? I'm in the FWB Northgate neightorhood, and Robert is in Shalimar. Neither one of us gets FOX. It maybe a matter of location.

As far as going higher, if you get FOX without sound,something else is wrong. DTV reception is an all or nothing issue. You either get it or you don't. In fact, I understand that the picture will break up (pixelation) before the sound degrades.
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post #169 of 4065
12/28/02 at 6:47am
I have a DTC-100 and the sound of FOX's digital cuts in and out and the sound on PBS-HD sounds all garbled. At times it will pop in after a couple of minutes and be fine as long as I don't change channels. Does this sound like a receiver issue? It does to me but I want a second opinion.
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post #170 of 4065
12/28/02 at 7:07am
Chris,

When it happens, what is your signal strength? PBS should be strong w/o problems which makes me think it is a receiver issue but it could be a signal issue as well. Is this a new problem?
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post #171 of 4065
12/28/02 at 7:44am
Chris,

I live in Theodore Al. South of Mobile. I have a Samsung TS-160 HD receiver and I get a 100% signal strength from 10-1 Fox and I ocassionally get the audio cut in and out that you mentioned.

It seems to be a sync thing with Fox 10 but I don't think it's your receiver. For what its worth the problem is getting less frequent than before.

J C
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post #172 of 4065
12/28/02 at 9:38am
i also have nearly 100% on fox and get the audio cut in/out but it goes away after a little while, i agree that its probably some sort of sync issue. Once my 520 latches onto fox and the audio cut ins stop, then i can change channels anc come back without any problems.
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post #173 of 4065
12/28/02 at 10:49am
I have the Dish 6000 with OTA adapter and have no audio problems on any OTA channels. I get some pixelation once in a while on WKRG, bu even then no audio problem.

Govnah, a UM reciever is a Unity Motion receiver for the Big Dish. Are you in the Mobile/Pensacola area. You do not list a location on your post.
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post #174 of 4065
12/28/02 at 3:31pm
I agree about the Fox issue but Chris also has a problem on PBS - HD which is different.
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post #175 of 4065
12/29/02 at 9:26am
Just wanted to make my presence known. I still don't have a HDTV. I posted here about 6 months ago when i lived in dothan. I then convinced my parents to get a HDTV monitor...since then i've moved to Mobile.

I'm just a lurker...waiting and wandering whats going on with HDTV in mobile.

Anyone know when Comcast is gonna pick up HDTV on their digital cable?
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post #176 of 4065
12/29/02 at 9:43am
crimsonblake, Welcome to the local thread on HDTV. We have Cox in Pensacola. Go to the Comcast site and send them an email and ask them. They will either give you a tenative date or tell you they do not know yet, but they should send you a reply.
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post #177 of 4065
12/29/02 at 10:16am
I still need a HDTV..anyone want to donate some money to a 22 yr old?
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post #178 of 4065
12/29/02 at 3:06pm
Chris, I have audio problems with WSRE on the DTC-100 all the time. Just go back to watching on the big dish. Did you get ABC tuned in on T4?

Bob H.
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post #179 of 4065
12/30/02 at 5:56am
Thread Starter 
That's odd, Robert, I don't have any audio problems with WSRE with my SIR-T150. So could this be a receiver problem at fringe reception level?

crimsonblake, nice try but I have to save all my money for when I'll forced to trash my Toshiba to buy an all new setup with a DVI capability

Still waiting for WTVY in Dothan to go on the air. Will your folks be adding a HDTV STB when that happens, crimsonblake?
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post #180 of 4065
12/30/02 at 9:24am
Trich and I were in Las Vegas last week and went to a big electronic store.
They had Samsung 27" HDTVs for $695.00. Daniel, they had your DLP and that is a nice tv, and only 60lb. wow. The best looking tv there was a 73" Mitsubishi with 9" guns [probably ISF to the max] but man it was sweet.
Crimson, the first 3 years Trich and I were married we had a 19" tv. You can get in to HD for about $600. Get you a Samsung 150 or a 151 [less than $400]then go to Sams and get a 19" monitor $179 and you now have HD. I did this with my HD100 and with my 19"Sony monitor just to see what it would look like. You will be amazed at the PQ. Full screen too so no bars when watching HD.
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