Mobile, AL / Panama City, FL - HDTV - Page 126

So far there's been no mandate for LPTV to cut to digital, so across the station there are several stations still broadcasting in analog.

W30BX has a permit to flash cut to digital on RF channel 30, so they may indeed be in the process of doing that.

Yes, channel 30 was a low-power analog station that barely extended beyond the Mobile city limits. I think LPTV stations can broadcast in analog until next year, when they will be forced to convert to digital.

Sadly, we don't have that on our Digital cable box or the cable converter box. Guess it's a rumor.

I have been able to see ION programming with the "set-top boxes" ever since I posted the message you quoted. ION programming recently became accessible through the digital transport adapters in my home.

i'll be moving to Mobile (most likely the midtown area, but i'm also considering the downtown area as well) in July and was wondering if some of you locals could give me some advice re: choices for internet and cable service. also, if anyone can also provide advice re: local hi-fi shops and home theater installers, i'd appreciate that as well...

many thanks in advance!

In Mobile itself....Comcast is the only cable company. However, if you choose to locate in the outskirts (West Mobile and surrounding areas), you'll have Mediacom. Like pretty much everywhere else, Comcast is as bad is everyone says it is....if not worse. If you can hook up a dish or have access to AT&T UVerse...I would recommend that route.

However, if you don't have access to UVerse where you end up, your only other option for internet is AT&T DSL, which for me is horrible. I have 768k service (which I downgraded from 1.5) and I'm lucky to see it go above 300k in both instances. Even though Comcast rips off its non cable customers for internet, this may be the only way to go unless you go full-cable.

BLAB TV programming is now available in Mobile.

http://www.examiner.com/tv-in-mobile...ailable-mobile

I am going to look for it right now.

And there it was! Blab TV running on 33-4 digital.

Something else interesting I noticed my plasma showed an "air channel" which was not digital. Lo and behold, I got a weak signal on analog channel 30, the HSN channel. First time I have ever seen that one pop up on my receiver.

Someone posted a while back that is was missing. I guess it is back on the air.

This is a low power station, still allowed to broadcast in analog, correct?

Interesting...they must have worked out some kind of time-brokerage agreement with WHBR. This is the first time i've seen anything like this, so BLAB must be serious about getting their signal viewable in Mobile. (Is WHBR even a commercial license?) For those of you in on the Florida side of the market, is BLAB on the main channel or on a subchannel of WFBD?

Speaking of subchannels, I wonder what channel LIN is going to put "Bounce TV" on...knowing what a "strong" signal WALA puts out.

According to the World Wide Web site of the FCC, WHBR-TV is a commercial digital TV station.

BLAB-TV is on OTA channel 33.4 (WFBD).

Is anyone around here using one? I would be particularly interested to know if any Mediacom customers on the Eastern Shore have successfully set up this card.

It is expensive, around $400. But you insert a cable card, and it has four tuners. The idea is that you use Windows Media Center as your DVR, and the device will eventually pay for itself because you are not having to rent a dvr from the cable company.

Silicondust is also coming out with a six tuner ethernet device in July, but it will cost about $500 and you have to use two cable cards with it.

I now use a Hauppauge Colossus card which allows me to use my Directv HD DVR as a tuner in media center. I also have an HD Homerun ethernet tuner for OTA reception, and they work great in Media Center. I have made many recordings using them.

But the great disadvantage is that you can only tune one satellite channel at the time using the Colossus. So when others are watching, I wind up having to use the Directv HD DVR to record shows, and then I transfer the keepers to hard disk in real time, tying up the Directv device from being used by others while I make the transfer.

I would consider going with the Ceton or the HD Homerun product to be released, if and only if the PQ produced by Mediacom with a cable card is equal to Directv. The last time I tried Mediacom with their Motorola DVR was circa 2007, and the results were, shall we say, far less than satisfactory. The low band cable channels were noisy and full of hash. Not pleasant to watch on a modern large screen flat panel TV. But the technician told me a cable card solution would produce a better result. I did not try it at the time.

But I would love to hear Eastern Shore Mediacom customers who are watching cable through a large screen plasma, lcd, led or the like, and hear a report on picture quality.

Thanks in advance.

WFBD-TV broadcasts on channel 48 and WHBR-TV broadcasts on channel 34 over the air (main channel programming appears on virtual channel 33-1). Every time I set a digital TV converter for BLAB TV on channel 33-4, the words "DTV Program" and "No Description" appear on the screen. The same words appear when I set the converter for channel 33-2, which has programming from the international version of the Christian Television Network since WHBR-TV is affiliated with them.

You're right and thank you for the correct information. I got the call letters mixed up. I seldom view either one of those stations. 33-1 is the main channel with religious programming, 33-2 is CTNi and 33-4 is BLAB. I get them all with an antenna here in Gulf Breeze

That puzzle must be sovled for 33.3. Couldn't be ION/qubo channel, WAWD, WRBD or WBQP-CA?

One thing Dish Network finally picked up the HD feed of WFNA. Now they must get WFGX, WJTC, APT, and WSRE.

FOX

Has anybody had issues with WPGX and WALA both being on VHF 9?

no, but I wish Fox would move off of VHF, since they are the only one on it.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to get WALA in Pensacola or way out in Mary Ester. I'm north of Foley in Baldwin County and have trouble with it, with indoor antennas. If I climbed to the top of my roof I'd probably be able to see their tower.

I can't get WPGX from my location. I have a friend who has issue with WPGX that sounds like maybe the digital version of co-channel. I was wondering if there was another 9 east of WPGX or if WALA was getting carried farther to the East. The Dxer map is a nice guide when conditions are right but not a Bible. Mother Nature follows her own rules.

I was watching WKRG the other night and happened to notice a Publix commercial that appeared to be in HD....it was in 16x9, and although it was a little flickery, it was much sharper and more vibrant than the other commercials running in SD....I wonder if this means that non-network programming is capable of being broadcast in HD. Since WKRG picked up the syndicated run of Big Bang Theory starting this fall...I'm hoping it will be in HD as well!

Guess what!? When I was rescanning channels in here, I got shocked when I get WLOX-TV from here. And we get the 24/7 ThisTV subchannel in Mobile, so we don't have to worry about the boring WFGX.

I wonder WKFK 7 reaches in here though...

What part of Mobile do you live in? I am on the Eastern Shore, and WLOX is out of my range here.

I live in D.I.P., this morning... I guess it barely pick up in Mobile and I don't have a roof antenna, just indoor.

Has disappeared from all my tuners. Wonder if something happened to the carriage agreement? 33-4 is black from here.

Same here. The channel is still present but there is no picture/content.

There were times when there was a frozen picture or no picture from Christian Television Network International (CTNi) on channel 33-2. WHBR-TV could be having technical issues with channel 33-4.

I can pick up 33.1 and 33.2, but no signal is acquired on 33.4.

I know it was working last week. I noticed the problem yesterday.

I emailed Blab TV through their website, and asked about 33-4. If I understood the response correctly, the transmissions over 33-4 are used to relay content. I was urged to go to the Blab TV website to view their programming or to tune in channel 48, which would not be easy to do from Spanish Fort. I cannot imagine what the purpose of the relay would be, but that is what they said.

I infer from the response that 33-4 will still be used, but should not be looked at as a source of Blab-TV programming.

I tried again last night to tune the frequency, but no signal was present.