Lexington, KY - HDTV - Page 4

just caught this screen capture from the KET "digital" site... (see attached GIF)!

The next HD program scheduled on the national PBS guide is Nov 24, 9:00PM ET. Sure hope they're up by then! A couple of widescreen SD programs are scheduled before the 24th.

It looks like this KET-4 channel is going to be dual purpose and will timeshare between standard programming and HD. So I'm guessing we won't see the 24/7 loop (that has some great stuff in it) that was running prior to the early July cutoff.

http://www.ket.org/dtv/

http://www.pbs.org/digitaltv/

Bump

Well folks .... I see WDKY has applied for an STA (read low power) for channel 4. Perhaps they'll actually have something on the air soon ...

HDC(onverted)

Bump, Bump

Update: (11/15/02)
Just rechecked FCC site ... WDKY's STA has been approved ... Light it up!

Bump

Hummmm ....

I see blips on channel 4 tonight - max strength 06%. Can anybody confirm WDKY-DT is up or testing?

HDC

Has anyone seen PAX up in awhile. Seems I have not seen them for a week or so. Are they gone or is it just me?.

For those who care .... WDKY-DT Ch 4 is on the air as I type ....

As for UPX ... they are currently only on the air from 8pm(ish) to 12am(ish). Also, you may have to rotate your antenna to get them ... they are almost 35 degrees off from the other stations (from my location.)

HDC

I saw PAX digital on last night (FRI) when I did a channel scan... they're not up as I type this morning (SAT), but I've also "manually" redirected my antenna 180 degrees trying to sniff something from WDKY (I've got a rotor on my Christmas list ). I'm smack dab in the middle of the WDKY's location and the WKYT/WTVQ digitals.

I've not seen anything yet on digital VHF-4 from WDKY. I must have been looking too late FRI evening... and they don't appear to be doing anything this morning...

HDTVChallenged, were they transmitting normal programming or test signals? Do you have any screen grabs to share?

sorry for the delay... here's some HD snaps shots from the game a few weeks ago...

click here for full size picture
This is an NTSC up-convert of the last play in the LSU game... this is for comparison to the following HD pics...

The following pictures are 19.1Mbps 1920x1080i HDTV from CBS! WKYT shutdown their additional multicast channels and allocated full bandwidth to the single HD channel for this game.

click here for full size picture

click here for full size picture

click here for full size picture

click here for full size picture

click here for full size picture

click here for full size picture

Ragamuffin,
They have been transmitting normal programming since Friday afternoon (22nd.) You will need a true VHF antenna to pick them up. I was getting blips on channel 4 Thursday evening, but couldn't bring them in until I put my VHF antenna back up. I believe their tower is located between Wilmore and Nicholasville. Alas no screen shot capability here ... looks like the standard 480i signal upconverted to 480p

HDC

HDC,

I have a Radio Shack VU-190 combo VHF/UHF in my attic... I've got it pointing in the proper direction (Fox56 analog is "perfect" with no ghosting, and I'm getting on OK signal on analog 3 from L'ville, so I think my VHF is working properly...)... but I'm seeing nothing on the DT-4 from FOX. Can you verify that FOX is up in DT right now? It's Sunday afternoon... Anybody else out there locked it in yet?

Where are you "generally" located distance-wise from the FOX towers? I'm very close to the intersection of Man-O'War and Harrodsburg road.

Thanks!

Yep, they're up (11/24/02-12:44pm) ... Generally ... ~10-15mi ssw of tower .... I get more or less "perfect" reception on 56 no matter what I use for an attenna or where I point it - so that may not be a useful indicator

Try aiming 180 degrees from your WKYT alignment and sweep toward the south ... It's a lot easier with a rotor ... I would think being on the south side of Lex you shouldn't have multipath problems.

HDC

I'm guessing that you're in the Danville area... and that FOX is possibly transmitting at very low power and possibly "away" from Lexington at the moment... I can see one tick mark on my signal meter occasionally, but not very often. Maybe they'll up the power on Monday and we'll be able to lock. I pinged another buddy of mine with a DT STB and he can't lock on them either... but he is seeing a sniff of a signal too... thanks for the heads-up HDC!

Just checked the engineering data from FCC. The low power directional antenna is "pointing" South. >= Half power from 120 to 220 degrees ... Bizarre. OTOH, WDKY is allegedly a "Danville" station so perhaps that has something to do with the current orientation.

HDC

Danville is the city of license and must be covered in order to get the STA...

Recently I have been having trouble receiving WKYT-DT. I was receiving a nice picture on all three of the DT channels through my Toshiba Direct STB. Lately, I don't get a high-def picture, the picture appears to be SD, and not particularly good quality. I searched this thread and didn't see anything to show a general problem with WKYT-DT so I am assuming I have a personal problem. Other HDTV channels are received just fine, both OTA and through Direct. Any thoughts?

You've been bitten by the DirecTV program guide bug which is sending you to the analog channel. The only consistant fix is to disable the local program guide ... If you're lucky, WKYT will temporarily disable their channel remapping to 27-1 long enough for your rx to add 13-1 to it's memory. Then you can dial 13-1 directly from the remote without the rx jumping to the analog channel.

HDC

I was doing it this way for a while, but then 13-1 would bounce to 27 analog every hour or so (annoying during games). So I gave up and took out my ZIP code. All is well now, but of course I don't get local schedules or the pretty icons. Oh, well.

Ryan

My problem is that if I take out my zip code then my STB does not recognize the other DT stations in the area. Could someone direct me to a discussion thread about this DirecTV problem? Is this something that I have to live with the rest of my time with DirecTV?

djohn

I had the same problem with my Toshiba STB. I have the mindset right now to live with it. I don't use the guide to see what's on, so it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers my wife...so it goes. Being poineers again in the television revolution is fun most of the time, but can be frustrating.

The best fix is to scan your channels....remove your zip.....and scan again.
This kept my call letters up when I put in 27-1 or 36-1 but removed the guide.

That is true, they are lsited out of Danville for FCC purposes, but are required to provide coverage to lexington for Neilson ratings purposes. Or so the station manager said. What they have done here is a quick fix to avoid losing their license from the FCC for non-compliance. They are still looking for a tower site to install their DTV high power transmitter.

I live in on the east side (Almost in Clark County) and have not been able to tune in their signal yet. (The best i got on the signal meter was 6). Why don't they ask 27 or 36 if they can lease space on their tower. It seems this would be the most cost effective for fox since their tower applicaction was denied by LFUCG and the FAA won't allow them to buid another tower near the other two.

The other problem is that WDKY is a sinclair station. Almost none of their stations nationwide provide any HDTV. Talk about a bunch of cheapskates. Maybe the FCC should take a few of their licenses away so they get with the program. If pax can do it, why can't WDKY get the picture.

My apologies if any DKY engineers are lurking here, but it's obviously a shoestring operation down there. The locally fed ads and promos look like they're coming off of a VHS deck with a tracking problem.

Ryan

Actually I believe the only meaningful legal requirement is that they serve the community of Licence ... even in regard to the analog broadcast.


And you probably wont get anything in the current configuration. The current antenna's field strength is practicaly 0% for anyone north of the KY river.

That having been said the quality of the digital signal (for those who can get it) is as good as upconvered 480i ever gets. Certainly better than the best SD DBS feeds.

The flaw of Sinclair's argument that this is all money down the drain is that:

1) On VHF Channel 4, WDKY could easily reach the same area coverage as analog 56 while using 1/10 (or less) of the ERP that they are using on channel 56. In fact, I'd bet that they could reduce their ridiculously high ERP on 56 enough to cover the cost of running the digital transmitter at reasonable power without any noticable effect on the analog signal.

2) Sinclair risks alienating their most coveted marketing demographic: Specifically those who have already demonstrated that they have ample discretionary income to afford shiney new HDTV's and digital receivers.

Then again FOX ain't helping much either ...

HDC

As always these are just my opinions ... I could be wrong.

Are they doing any "widescreen" stuff yet? I'm curious on how good the NFL games look on WDKY-DT?

I have both my HDTV and an analog set side-by-side and CBS football in HDTV is outstanding in comparison to analog. CBS NFL DTV is good in comparison to analog (although there stills seems to be some EE going on...). ABC Monday Night Football DTV pales in comparison to the analog from a color perspective only. This ABC "washed out" appearance for upconverts on DTV has been discussed on this thread before... Why does CBS look better than ABC in this regard? Anyone know why?

ragamuffin,
No widescreen yet .... and I doubt they will do any of this before they get their "full-power" transmitter running. WDKY is just "upconverting" their regular analog feed. That having been said, the digital signal quality is significantly better than the analog (except for the audio level that is about 15db too high )

I don't watch any significant amount of NFL - however, I have noticed the washout effect on WTVQ while surfing the channels. Again, I believe WTVQ just upconverts their normal analog SD feed for MNF - easier to insert local spots. I've long suspected that there's something a bit wonky with TVQ's SD color balence (even before the digital conversion.) So, I suspect the problem originates in the analog domain and is made worse during the upconvert.

OTOH, WKYT usually passes-through the CBS upconverted network feed if it is available. CBS's upconverter does a much better job (for the most part) than what the local affiliates can do. It's getting bit harder to tell the difference since KYT nixed the gray side-bars on the locally upconverted programs.

HDC

Anyone else experiencing drop-outs on WKYT? The last couple of days (even before the snow) I may not get a signal at all while other times it is very, very weak. I have had no problems with WTVQ or KET.

I've been picking them up OK the past few days... however, a quick check at the moment shows ZERO signal level on my meter. So there is nothing coming from them right now. And I'm less than 10 miles to their tower. WTVQ is coming in loud and clear.

12/5/2002 4:34EST

Signal strengths
WKYT-DT (13) : 100
WDKY-DT (04) : 65
WTVQ-DT (40) : 72
WKLE-DT (42) : 100
WUPX-DT (21) : off air
WKRC-DT (31) : 0 to 6

The two Lexington UHF channels are much higher than my normal afternoon readings.

HDC

ragamuffin,

See WHAS's comments in the Louisville threads..

Probably the same thing as they have the same type of system.

Thanks William! I see that WCET-DT went HD yesterday! One wonders if WKLE-DT will be far behind?

I am also seeing some dropouts with WKYT.

Also, has anyone noticed that WTVQ is multicasting. The second one is just an upconvert of the analog, like WKYT is doing. But it looks like poo. Lots of video "noise" in the source. Have a look.