Springfield, MA - HDTV - Page 6

Does anyone else in the area have a T151, and are you seeing the same distortion with the ZOOM mode on wwlp-3?
Larry

I checked 22-3 last night during Kingpin and saw black bars on all four sides. I did appear to be 16x9 though and I couldn't change the aspect ratio. Switched to 22-1 and the image was stretched.

I emailed Dave Cote yesterday and received a reply pretty quickly. It doesn't really offer anything new.
=================================================
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 10:48 AM
To: dcote@wwlp.com
Subject: WWLP High Definition Programming

Good Morning Mr. Cote,

I have recently installed a new antenna and I am now able to receive
your High Definition (HD) channel in Farmington, CT. I saw the addition
of channel 22-3 in the last week but I did not see an HD signal coming
through on those shows that are filmed in HD. I was wondering when you
would be sending the high definition broadcasts. There are many of us
waiting excitedly in Connecticut and we look forward to WWLP in HD.

On a related note, I use a DirecTV/ATSC tuner to receive WWLP-DT. The
guide information only says "Regular Schedule". The analog station guide
information has all the programming information displayed. The receiver
uses a zip code data base to access that information, but for some
reason your digital station programming information does not appear. How
does that information get from you to DirecTV? The importance of this is
for the recording of NBC and WWLP programming.

Thank you,

Ralph Summa
===============================================
Morning Ralph,

Thanks for the report. We recently just finished the 22-3 side and have it running in an up-converted mode. Waiting for some equipment to pass the NBC HD side of the world and hope to have that up soon.

As for the programming of the guide I still need to follow-up that
portion of the project. Great things keep coming.

Thanks for watching,

David Cote
Chief Engineer WWLP TV
dcote@wwlp.com
=================================================

As you can see, he is supposedly getting back to me on the missing guide information.

BTW, DirecTV called me yesterday to say that the program guide was a Hughes STB issue. Surprise surprise....


Larry,

Are you getting program info on 22-1 and 22-3 in your T151's guide?

Is anyone else getting the info on a non-Hughes/Tosh/Mits box?

That doesn't bother me so much, but I have three digital channels that just say "Regular Schedule" in the guide, and what bothers me is I can't just highlight programs on those channels to timer record. I can't even remember how to program the VCR! I'd tell my wife it's time for a TiVo, but she'd shoot me.

I checked last night and confirmed that I'm not getting any programming information at all using the T151 over the air. Not a DirecTV subscriber, so I can't comment there...

I also verified my distortion issue. With my Samsung T151 (1080i DTV mode on my Mits 55) on WWLP-3, I view in Full mode with proper aspect ratio on the display, although I do have bars on the sides of the picture. The image appears to be 4x3, and I watch WWLP-3 programming in this mode. What concerns me though is that I can shift the T151 into ZOOM mode on this station (Zoom appears to be unavailable to me on other HD channels!), and when I ZOOM on WWLP-3 I get a corrupted display on the right 1/3 of my screen. about 100 evenly spaced horizontal lines with missing or incorrect video information.

My STB is still only three weeks old, so I'm VERY interested if this is something that other T151 owners might be seeing. If not, then it might indicate a flaw in my unit and I'll exchange it for another this weekend. Are there any others viewing WWLP-3 with a T151, and do you see this problem in zoom mode?

Thanks,
Larry

Thanks for the heads up I just got home and was , am watching Judging Amy on CBS. Switched to 22-3 and lo and behold! Yes! I will be up "late" to watch if The Tonight Show is also fed in HD.

Woh! Did anyone else see that Peacock animation that ran about 10:28 pm on 22-3?
Very weird but cool.

YES!!

Looks awesome, did see the flying Peacock thing, weird. Can't wait to see what Ed looks like tomorrow night.

BTW, my HiPix now works properly on 22-3, high def feed looks/records normally.

THANKS WWLP!!! I'll never watch WVIT again!!

11pm news on 22-3 is stretched?

I thought I saw that last night as well, but something really weird was going on with my Hughes STB last night, so I didn't look into it. That's for the Hardware forum though. I didn't even think to look at 22-3. Further reinforcing my theory that there is nothing for me on NBC! I'm going to send an email to Dave Cote a WWLP and let him know about the change we saw in the guide info.

AreBee

You have accomplished something with DirecTV for over the last two days almost all of the digital program guides appeared on my Sony HD200. Every one had been missing. That includes 20.1, but not 22.1, .3. To answer an earlier question from you in another thread, I am in New Haven/Wallingford area and do get 22 in Springfield very well. Tell Dave Cote in your next message all his ads are reaching this area. WVIT - so long

Everyone else lose the HD feed for WWLP at 8:45 tonight? Bummer, looked pretty good before it cut out.

I didn't get home until after 9:30 last night but what I saw on 22-3 didn't look right. The commercials were filling the screen and then the switch was flipped around 9:50. The commercials were then 4x3 with black bars. I kept doing an A/B comparison with 22-1 and 22-3. During Law and Order 22-1 was stretched 22-3 looked fine. So it looks like the HD feed came back. NBC-HD did not seem as "rich" as CBS-HD or ABC-HD.

I did not notice if the program guide was up for 20-1 or 59-1. I'll check tonight.

AreBee

Program guide is up for Ch 20 on my Mits HD400.

I agree Arbee, the NBC HD conversions/feed did not look as good as CBS/ABC. I watched Ed, not L&O.

Still pretty sweet they got it up though!!

That's great. Once the digital program guide is up I can get rid of the analog station from my APG. If it's working on your Mits, I'm sure it will be up on my Hughes. DirecTV was trying to tell me it was a hardware issue. Big surprise...

I don't watch very much on NBC, but getting the HD feed from WWLP is certainly a step in the right direction, and as AFIS said, I can now say "Bu-Bye" to WVIT.

Has WFSB TV3/DTV33 upped their power levels or made any changes? Last night for the first time (even when we've had good tropo in the past) we locked on and just checking a few minutes ago, we still receive their signal. Previously my signal strength meter was half what it is now. Anyone else?

Jason,

You aren't the first to report this. I haven't heard anything official about a power increase for WFSB, and I'm fortunate enough that I always picked it up at 100%, so I can't really tell any difference on the signal meter. I used to have a problem with my commercials pixellating (even with a 100% signal) and that stopped about a month ago.

The official word was that that they would be broadcasting at full power on 6/1/03.

Any New News???

About WesternMA and HDTV???

getting a hdtv cable box from comcast this sat for the TV in the living room, it's 2$ more a month, but I think it's worth it, so I don't have to buy another tuner and run the coax cable all over the place. I've already have an OTA tuner set up for my bedroom. anyone else using comcast cable in western MA to get hdtv?

Well, after a site visit to Tribune Media Services and a call to an inside contact at D*TV, I've finally gotten to the bottom of the guide issue for us folks in CT that are receiving WWLP. Seems there is something screwy with the zip/code and/or blackout zones with D*TV's database. As of early Feb., TMS did start pushing guide info for WWLP on the -1 channel only (as some of you in Springfield reported).

WWLP never notified TMS that the -3 channel was active, so whoever has a contact over at WWLP, could you call them and have them notify TMS that the HD -3 channel is alive.

I'm still working with D*TV for a workaround for those of us in CT so we can get the guide data, will keep you posted.

Curious what you think about the comcast box and service??

HOw about local with antenna.. it have local tuner too?

I flipped on West Wing the other night and there were black bars on all four sides. I thought WW was SD-widescreen. Was this a case of someone forgetting to throw the switch or has WWLP not resumed HD feed since the war started? I don't watch a whole lot of NBC so I was wondering about the recent HD programming on WWLP.

West Wing is not an HD broadcast, it is letterboxed SD, so when you view on 23-3 you get black bars on side (from SD upconvert), and black bars on the top/bottom because the show is letterboxed from NBC. Looks rediculous doesn't it. Turns my 55" into a 27" in a hurry.

On another note, I was able to get programming info for WWLP by entering 01105 as the secondary zip code. There is still no programming info being passed for 22-3, only 22-1.

Finally, talking with D*TV last night I got some info on the HD flags for programs. They will finally fix the HD flags for HBO & Showtime HD next week. We will not, however, see HD flags for local OTA ATSC programming "anytime soon" as they have technical challenges between themselves and TMS.

Slow progress........

Arbee, who is your contact at WWLP? Can you ask them to tell TMS they have 22-3 on the air so they begin pushing programming info for that sub-channel.

the box is a motorola 5000 series and the switch over was quick and painless. I am now debating if I want to switch back to the old setup, since there is currently only 2 channels available in HD, HBO-HD, and SHOWTIME-HD. They gave me the gold package free for one month. Since I don't normally subsribe to these channels. The 2 HD channels look really nice, but the regular non-hd channels look worst than before, it is much more grainier with my RPTV. It does not have a OTA tuner bulit in to the cable box, I am using a Zenith DV420 for my CBS, NBC(WWLP), ABC(WBBG) and PBS.

rich