Little Rock, AR - HDTV - Page 404

Nah, the streaming works between a whole range all the way back to pre-DT 2's.

What I think is going on is that the comcast box somehow puts the flag on the RCA outs to close the analog hole so people can't copy crap. That is what makes the most sense. And the TiVo software must have a way to detect it or something. Or it knows just by the lineup you choose it to show somehow triggers it automatically to apply that flag to close the analog hole. It just seems like a copy protection scheme to keep you from doing bad junk.

In any case, you didn't really tell me much about the sd tuner that I can use. Price and connection method are the key things. Does it only tune in the channels from the old analog basics (I.e. 2 - 69 or so)? Since it does SD only, I think that is what I really need to be using on that old TiVo to get the content my wife is wanting. So, if you don't mind, can you give me a little quick rundown on it or sow me a page to check out?

EDIT: do you mean that DTA box thingy? If so, I might have a neighbor that has a couple.

Yea, dta box. Gets most of the sd channels.

Ok, whats up? Fritz hasnt updated his blog for a month so cant find out there...

Turned on my HD Radio tonight, to listen to some Tom-FM, and no HD Radio. Did an HD Radio scan, and NONE of the stations appear to be transmitting in HD, or else my receiver is screwed up. Gets all the analogs ok.

Anyone know the scoop?

HD signals are from 12 to 20 dB below the regular analog signals. Anything in your setup that causes a loss of signal power has the potential to eliminate HD without noticeably affecting analog FM reception.

Ill check the antenna this afternoon after work, but it worked fine the last time I used it. Guess it could have a bad connector or something. Thanks.

Just hooked the HD Radio tuner to the main antenna system (amplified) and was picking up stations from all over the place, but still not a single HD lock. The HD light just flashes non-stop. Guess its fried. Teach me to buy Insignia again.

FWIW, looking at the available HD radio tuners left on the market, its either $2000+ or a portable unit. Guess Ill just stick with Pandora and not even worry about it. Its obvious its going the way of the Dodo bird.

Just checked mine. Been meaning to, just forgot. Appears I still get TOM-FM HD. That's about I so far though. Doing a scan. Nope, KSSN, too. Used to get 100.3 and quite a few others. Wonder what's going on. Of course, am just using the wire that came with it, so I could have moved it.

OK Thanks. I am pretty sure my tuner just isnt working. POS Best Buy box. They dont make it anymore anyway, so Im just gonna forget about HD Radio.

By the way, Dave, just wanted to let you know that the DTA did, indeed, fix my problems with having a copy protect flag put on that TiVo's recordings. It was something with using the RCA's on the back of that RNG-110 that had the flags on by default. Just wish there was a way to get two separate IR blasters working on the TiVo so I could record from the DTA and the RNG-110 at the same time. Oh well, this is good enough. And this new TiVo Premiere is working pretty well. Couple of snafu's at the beginning, but since then, smooth sailing. I wish it told you when things were blacked out instead of saying that the channel isn't available and to contact the provider. Kinda annoying.

Oh, reminds me, anyone get HBO Family on Comcast? The SD and HD channels both don't work even though it's in the guide.





Side note: Isn't this new layout weird??????

Format is going to take some getting used to.

As for HBO, they are having a free preview weekend on DirecTv. I went through the whole weekend on every HBO channel, and found a total of ZERO movies/programs I was even remotely interested in.

Hey, guys! Long time not chat. Hey I got a really good offer from DirecTV today but I've always been nervous about the whole weather issue with satellite. You probably dont remember (hundreds of pages back) that I was like the 4th person in LR to get Uverse. I'm trying to find ways to cut my cable but sports is keeping me chained. (Though I have figured out a way around MLB.tv blackouts, so it's still a possibility.)

Anyway, any of you have satellite? What is your experience in this area with weather signal dropouts? How often? How long? The offer is $39.99/ month the first year, $53.99 the 2nd year. Regularly, $63.99/month which is still $20 less than the cost of Uverse. Same channels i watch. Plus it is well documented the better quality.

Very tempting....

Edit: called AT&T but they only offered to give me U300 with $50 rebate card. So unless y'all are like "no way, don't do it, the signal cut out is too annoying" then I think it's a no brainer.
Edited by bpeacock22 - 6/9/12 at 1:48pm

Ben, if you remember, I lived around the corner from you for years. I had satellite almost the entire time except for a period where they wouldn't give me HD like I wanted. The entire time I was with DirecTV I had virtually 0 problems. It would have to be the thickest, darkest, heaviest rain clouds before I would lose signal. Or it would have to be about a foot of snow on my dish to block it. All this while it was pointing through a fairly thin tree behind the house. If I ever lost the signal, it wouldn't be for very long. Just long enough for the thick thick clouds to pass by. The trick is to make the installer aim the dish properly so that you have almost perfect signal levels before you let him leave the house. If you do that, you will have 0 problems except for times when you shouldn't be trying to watch tv in the first place.

Hope that helps.

Steve

Welcome back. You have two choices, getting a loud BEEP and a message to "Tune to channel 18" when there are storms anywhere around with Xfinity, or rain fade with DirecTv when the storm is directly south-southwest of your house, for anywhere from a minute to about 10 minutes, depending on the strength of the storm.

Whichever way you go, just remember those prices you were quoted were for the package you selected. You can add $10 a month for HD (possibly you can get this waived), $7 a month for DVR service, and $6 for each additional box in your house, and $3 a month if they are networked for Whole Home. Just so you can fairly compare what you are paying now. Also, DirecTv will charge you $5.99 extra for "HD Extra" channels U-Verse and Xfinity include in their top packages...and thats on top of paying for the HD in the first place. They will kill you with extra charges if you arent careful.

If you do go with DirecTv, request a FREE HMC (HR34) DVR, as it has 5 tuners. Then you can add up three more receivers (or DVRs) and wont have to juggle programs/times due to conflicts.

Ive got both DirecTv and Xfinity right now. After my special Xfinity pricing expires, taking into account the extra charges for each service, the difference for me is exactly $2 more for Xfinity, and Xfinity has LOTS more HD basic channels than DirecTv, and a LOT more SD channels Directv doesnt carry at all. Of course, DirecTv carries lots of sports (which are usually blacked out on the sports pack unless you pay the high dollar pro league packages). For example, to get the Cardinals, you need the sports pack ($12.99 mo) as they are blacked out on Extra Innings, but to watch the Braves, you need Extra Innings (and they are blacked out on the sports pack). LOTS of double charging for crap on DirecTv. Need to be careful and know the "rules" ahead of time.

Yeah, that is one thing DirecTV is damn good at. They LOVE LOVE LOVE to nickel and dime you to death! It is ridiculous the extras you pay for. I cut my bill by about $30 or so when I left them to go with Comcast. They just do not get the fact that people are getting shafted. Plus, they jack up the rates every March I think it is. They are eventually going to be $200 and offer less than Comcast at the rate they are going.

I don't have much to add regarding DirecTV service in particular, but I will add that when I had Dish, dropouts due to weather were few and far between, and only in the hardest rains.

Yea, DISH uses Ku band, which is less susceptible to rain fade than the Ka band DirecTv uses for HD. I didnt mention DISH, since he said he wants sports.

Yah Steve, I remember. Was hoping you'd reply having been so close.

As far as charges, I looked very closely and asked specific questions. I went with a choice Xtra. I didn't see any of the charges you mentioned, Dave. There is an "advanced receiver fee" that is $20/month. they started doing that in March. May have replaced all the nickel and dime stuff you mentioned. a bit steep but for doing auto-pay, they waive half of it for the first year.

For the two years I'm locked with them, I'm paying less than Uverse. Way less the first year. I'll worry about it again after that. In all likelihood I'll probably just get rid of it all and stream from the Internet. who knows.

Ahh, I didn't realize they used different bands, I was just commenting on my experiences with rain fade in general, feel free to ignore. I was just glad to see something happening in this thread so I figured I would say something.

Wonder if this would be any better for OTA reception for someone who doesn't or can't put up an outdoor antenna. Might be better than the other one I posted before. http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10901&cs_id=1090102&p_id=7976&seq=1&format=2&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=daily_deal&utm_content=06112012_7976&utm_campaign=dd_q2_2012

Seriously Steve...you and your damn indoor antenna's. The only good indoor antenna is Xfinity !

Actually tho, my parents have a chimney on their house. I mounted a 4221 4 bay bowtie on it. Stapled the antennas screen right to the wooden chimney cover. You cant even see the little bow ties unless you stare right at the chimney. They tried several versions of indoor antennas as well, and none of them would get all the channels without moving them around. They are not LOS though, there is a hill between them and Shinall.

It isn't for me. It is just for someone who wants to do it. I gave up on OTA for the most part. I can get the channels I want for the most part with that Philips antenna inside, but I rarely use it. I have it hooked up to my TiVo right now as a backup only. Some folks just can't do an outdoor one, so any option for receiving content is good I would think. I just spot antennas on monoprice and tell you guys about them because they are usually really low price and work just as good as the expensive ones....as long as you put them outside. LOL

Alright, fellers. DirecTV installed. Pretty happy so far. PQ is very noticeable and nice! Question though. Uverse presented Fox Sports Southwest Rangers games in 5.1. DirecTV is presenting it in stereo. Yes, I DO have Dolby turned on, on the DirecTV box. Not quite sure why this is. Could one provider do surround audio and one not?

Well, two possibilities. Either FSSW is distributed in Dolby PL2, and Uverse just encodes it as Dolby digital, or DirecTv is taking the feed and passing it along without Dolby Digital.
I would guess it would be the latter, since it is in Dolby Digital on Xfinity as well. All I can say is to set your amp to Prologic2 and pretend. You might ask on the dbstalk.com forum, and see what the experts there say.

Yeah, that is one thing I saw big time on DirecTV vs U-Verse comparisons. The "HD" quality on U-Verse was a JOKE. It looked bad to me. DirecTV looked really great. Xfinity is almost as good. As far as the sound, I really am not sure. I am fairly sure that it really is in DD. Maybe DirecTV mixes it down to Stereo to save bandwidth?? That's about all I can guess. I quit watching FSSW when I bought the sports pack. I stayed on FSMW all the time. I thought it was 5.1, but it was so long ago I can't remember.

I don't actually wonder if it is the former, because now that I think of it, on Uverse, the announcers were coming through the front surround speakers, not just the center. And that makes me think Uverse was faking it.

Add this to the mix: some commercials cause my receiver to show Dolby Digital, so the channel itself must be sent that way. The broadcast of the actual game must not be truly in surround, then, right?

Yes, if anything on the channel causes it to switch to Dolby Digital, then the channel is indeed in DD, but the program may not be. Apparently U-verse just forces everything to DD.

I am getting a "No Signal" on ch 20-1 and 20-2. Did they go off the air, drop power, or is my coax going south? They were always weak, but decoded ok until a few days ago.

It appears that 20 and 47 are broadcasting the same services. Looks like 47 dropped the WeatherNation channel, and is carrying Univision HD and MeTV.
Last night, 20 was off air completely when I checked it, but has since returned. I see 20.1 and 20.2 as well as 47.1 and 47.2.
Edited by Dr_Jan_Itor - 6/15/12 at 2:40pm

Well, 20 was on a few minutes ago, but is now off air. Also, MeTv is mapping on my TV as 49.1 on physical ch. 20.

Thanks. Guess that is why my DVR is giving me a tuner error when recording Bonanza. I guess 20/47/49 must still be run by the same retards that ran Equity