Little Rock, AR - HDTV - Page 410

yea I was surprised when it was a small box, did they just start this?
Maybe they are looking for ota PPV lol
you want big it will cost you.


I did a rescan in wmc and it found 20-2 but nothing there, I set it up manually and I now have 20-2. No listings and the pic is crap.
Weeeeee if its ota its got to be crap.

Ps anyone check cable channel 16 do they get SD stuff or just the OTA now.

It's SD whether its OTA or DTV.

Windows Media Center uses Zap2It.com for the TV listings and channel mappings. They don't appear to have KMYA-DT (49-1 / RF 20-2) in their database. That is why you had to add it manually. The problem with mappings and listings (EPG) is due to WMC and their data supplier (Zap2It/Tribune). That channel maps fine on my TV.

I think there is a lot of OTA that isn't crap.

dmatch

Be patient. HD IS coming soon.

Yeah, why be in a hurry. After al, HD has only been around for what, over ten years? Let's not rush in being current.

Well Johnny, the fact is this stuff cost money, and for the last several years KLRT/KASN has been saddled with a parent company that obviously didn't see the importance of putting the money into local HD insertion of syndicated and commercial content. I can tell you nobody has been more frustrated about that fact than us. On the other hand, we were the second station in the market to go HD with our newscasts. Earlier than that, we weren't the first HD stations in town, but we were the only stations who were equipped to begin passing our network programming in HD as soon as the networks started offering it. But Dr_Jan_Itor is right, we've got new management, and HD syndicated programming should be one of the early and obvious improvements in the coming weeks.

Aw man, Rocky. You've done it now. You've let it out that you work for KLRT/KASN. Prepare for the flaming! LOL

Just messing with you. But seriously, what is the deal with not being able to overlay HD weather graphics on top of an HD feed from FOX? It seems like that should be one of the basic things to do. Really screws with people to have to see it switching back and forth like that....especially when there is a half second delay when the switch is made. Oh well, maybe it's one of the things that will be fixed eventually.

Yeah, I have been wondering that too. It's really a pisser when I'm watching playoff football in HD and on comes that weather graphic. It causes me to brush up on my cursing. You could also let your management know that I'm one viewer who tries to avoid SD and since BBT is syndicated elsewhere on the dial in HD, I don't watch the Fox offering anymore.

Yeah, I almost jumped in and said something last week, when you commented on that, but I kept my mouth shut. I've got my flame suit on now though! Honestly though, I am not in engineering or master control, so I really don't know the answer to that, but it's something that has always bugged me too. I know Errett is an HD nut like us, and I'm sure he would fix it if it were within his power. All I can say is a lot of changes are going on at the moment, so I'll just repeat Dr_Jan_Itor: Be patient.

If they still do it the way they did originally, fox sends the stream in HD, allows room for insertion of one SD subchannel. At that time, none of the Fox stations were able to insert lower 1/3rd graphics onto the HD feed. I would think it would have been upgraded by now, though. To be honest, the other two FOX HD feeds I watch (Springfield, MO and Puerto Rico) have never inserted any graphics on any of the games I have watched this year, so dont know if they would suffer the same fate or not.

For anyone having issues scanning in KMYA-DT (49-1), try using the physical channel 16. I just did a manual scan on my computer tuner, and found KMYA-DT 49.1 on that channel now.
Two channels scan in on Physical channel 16, KMYA-DT 49.1 and KMYA-LP 47.1 (Mundo Fox Spanish).

I am having issues with my system finding anything correctly. I have never seen stuff like this...IS IT my tuner, system or just LR crap

I am using wmc with an avermedia duet. This setup worked last year in a win7 box I am trying it in a win 8 (which is a pos in my opinion) but moving on

I scan for channels and this is just some of the weird stuff I am seeing
channel 49.1 I show 2 one is dt the other is la....neither have a pic or channel listing and both of them are listed for 49.1 how the F did winders even get 2 of the same channel

I look at 22.2 that is supposed to be the real channel for 49.1 nothing so I manually map it and it works. no guide
Now the real weird stuff

I am looking thru channels and what is 25.1 no guide but it has a picture.
26.1 ?
I look and its a guide with no picture after messing for about 15 minutes I find out that 26.1 guide is for 25.1

And dave I tried channel 16 and got nothing manually mapping it.

Is this just the way it is with the crap lr channels we have or is it my tuner, winders or what????

signed very confused
ps my tv gets all the channels and guides ota cable to tv, stick winders in tne middle and its f city

Just go back to Windows 7. At least you only wasted $40 on 8, so it isn't as bad as it could have been. I just really think that 8 was designed for tablet computers only. I think the desktop stuff was thrown in there as an after thought. Just go back to 7 and you will probably be good to go again.

By the way, 25.1 and 26.1 are those christian tv channels if I am not mistaken. The stuff you really want should just automatically be found when you run a scan.

I just checked, and 49.1 is still transmitting on physical channel 16.
25.1 is out of Scott Ar, and 26.1 is out of Hot Springs. Both are simulcast of the Agape Christian channel.

I can't begin to guarantee I know exactly what's going on but this appears to be a combination of a complicated local DTV setup and the inability of Tribune Media Services (WMC data supplier) and/or Windows Media Center (WMC) to decipher the DTV configuration as implemented in the Little Rock area. There are multuple RF channels that carry the same stations with differing virtual channel IDs. That could create confusion when Tribune Media/WMC tries to create your WMC channel setups. Tribune Media's data tells WMC what RF/Virtual Channel associations to look for. If that data or WMC's implementation of it is incorrect compared to what is sent by the local station OTA then there would be problems like you are describing. If you want to see what Tribune Media/WMC thinks is in the Little Rock DMA you can go to Zap2It.com > TV Listings and put in a LIttle Rock zip code. On some of the channels I can't really tell what they are except by looking at the shows on the program guide. For instance, they have a KKYKCD and a KKYKCD2 that are on 20.1 and 20.2 respectively. You will not find a KKYKCD2 being broadcast locally OTA. It is KMYA-DT and is mapped to 49-1 not 20-2.

So the short answer is that It is the combination of a somewhat confusing LR OTA DMA setup, incomplete/inaccurate Tribune Media data and "winders."

Tribune media used to have a forum (Zap2It Labs) for discussing their data service. Even with that forum with access to personnel who could correct their many data errors they were not very adept or timely at making corrections. I think they got tired of us rocking their boat so they shut down their forum and we lost even that ability to help them correct their data.

On a side note. When I was using Windows MCE 2005 (predecessor to current WMC) I was able to map the channels I watched by editing some channel map files to correct for the erroneous Tribune setup data. However, whenever Windows MCE would connect to the internet to download the Tribune Media data I would have to make all the same corrections again because it re-downloaded the same crap. That and other considerations caused me to quit using MCE.

I hope all this made a little sense!

dmatch

I did a rescan on my TV (over the air) and looks like channel 16.2 ( ThisTV) and 38.2 (TCN) are missing. Looks like they been gone couple of days. But the prime carrier channel 16.1 (FOX 16) and 38.1 (KASN) are active.

Anybody have different results?

ThisTV (16.2 - RF 30) is not there for me either. I can't get 38, it's too far and wrong direction for me to tell about 38.2.

dmatch

Thanks dmatch.

Ch. 38 is alright as they show nightly episodes of Simpsons and King Of The Hill back to back. But could do without 38.2 (TCN) which shows country muic videos. I'm fan of good country songs, but that channel reeks.

As a side note, I get MeTV on both ch. 20.2 and 49.1. I compared both side by side, and 20.2 have higher signal strenth and slightly better picture and sound quality. Although they both simulcast the same programs, but they show different commercials during commercial breaks.

for the last time I deleted and rescanned all the channels.
I could not get 38.1 guide but I have the channel.
I tried again what dave had said about 49-1 by remapping 16 and it worked. No guide of course.
There is a setting in wmc about combining channels I saw the 25.1 and 26.1 again signal on 25 and guide on 26.
I combined them and got nothing.

I tried xbmc but never could get the backend or frontend of the tv setup they want to work so I gave up.

Overall it just a bunch of crap channels thrown into the area and have fun

16-2 and 38-2 are no more.

16 & 38 just moved to the Victory Building where 4 & 42 is, last Saturday. I could see This TV picked up by one of the KMYA stations.

thanks to dmatch and everyone.
I am in the process of using nextpvr and xbmc this weekend and see if its any better.
I did a trial on Zap2It its labs now, and I got a user name and password from them but when I tried to use an interface to get the guide it says invalid password.
All of the programs I am seeing to build a guide and import it are written in england or europe and they are built around their channels and guides, its sort of a hacked mess for us channels.

etrin, instead of paying for guide data, just set up your media center to where it has the listings you want and import them into your external PVR applications? I am sure you would like to save money...especially since they are coming from the same place as what you are paying for. Use the program mc2xml.exe and it will export the data for you into a format you can use with NextPVR. I've done it before. Only drawback is you have to do it every couple weeks. Either that or set up a script to do it for you on a schedule.

SageTv is getting a little long in the tooth (discontinued, no updates). I have a Windows 7 server with two network tuners (hdhomerun) and 8 TB of disk space. It has all my DVDs and CDs on it, and lots of downloaded media.

I was thinking of setting up Windows Media Center, and buying an XBox360 for a media extender. Dont know if I will need to get the one with a hard drive, or if I can get by cheap and get the 4GB version with a couple USB 32GB sticks.

Anyone use one? I dont play games, but my roomie would probably want to play some, so keep that in mind on the 4GB vs hard drive version.

Thanks.

Dave, honestly, don't try to use the 360 for your TV purposes. You will not like it. I have two of them and have tried the TV through it before. Booting up just to be able to watch TV takes WAY too long. It is just a pain in the ass.

There is a new $99 product called Echo, by Ceton I think, that is nothing but a WMC Extender. I would go with that first.

Leave the 360 for games. Besides, you can't use anything past a 16GB device on it. That is the cap MS put on it. Really sucks, too. You have to buy their proprietary crap to get a decent amount of space.

I checked the Amazon reviews on it, and they were pretty bad (slow, wont play half the formats used in home video storage, takes 2 seconds to resync on a commercial skip).
Do you have one, or just going by something you heard? The price between it and the 4GB Xbox is only $20.

I am going by the abysmal results I had while trying to use the 360 as an extender. There is no reason the Echo wouldn't work as an extender because it should play exactly the same thing that WMC plays. It can't just not play content. It either is formatted for WMC or it isn't. If you can play your phome video content via WMC, you should be able to play it on the Echo. And I seriously doubt it takes that long to resync on a commercial skip. Again, it's just an extender which, to me, would indicate that it is a dumb box that just funnels content over. I would imagine those folks bitching about that have crappy networks.

And, it can't be any slower than the 360 is. I am serious when I say how slowly it loads everything up. If you want to watch TV in any sort of hurry, forget about it with the 360. It takes a good 30 seconds or more. If you want, I can record video of me using mine as a MCE and let you see. Granted, once it's up and running, it's fine. But you can't leave it going all the time without it overheating or whatever. I wouldn't anyway. It isn't like a normal computer to me. You might feel differently.

Anyway, I will review all the comments left by past purchasers of it and see what I think about it. I can also ask a couple HTPC guru's I know what they think about it and see what they say. I can't imagine it would be that bad. I have read about many products similar to this and would think that if they didn't perform as expected, they wouldn't be out on the market. I still don't think I would go with a 360 unless you are really planning on gaming on it as well. I just think it's a waste of money.

You're welcome etrin.

It sounds like you are talking about Schedules Direct's Zap2It (Tribune Media) listings. If so, I have been there and done that myself. The guide data you get will be the same that your WMC gets for free.

I cranked up my WMC this morning to see what I was getting on it. Like you, I had "No Data Available" for the KKYK/KMYA pair (20.1 and 49.1). I didn't get KMYA (MeTV) until I did a "Scan for more Channels" in TV settings. I can't get all the low power stuff that is available in Little Rock (I'm about 25 miles north) but everything else that I can get has guide data (KETSDT1-4, KARKDT, KATVDT1-3, KTHVDT1-2, KLRTDT1-2, KARZDT1-2).

I'm assuming you are doing the guide data trial with Schedules Direct (SD) (schedulesdirect.org). Unless you really want to explore other media center systems and go thru the learning curve that goes with that, I would suggest to just use the trial subscription from SD and their forum as a gateway to address the missing data for the channels that you want. As in tell them (SD) that X Y Z channels are not available and ask could they be added? When I was frequenting SD they seemed to be very helpful and responsive and since they are a customer of Tribune Media Services (Zap2It) they are more likely to be able to get things fixed than an individual.

Edit: I changed my zip code to a Little Rock zip so maybe I could see what you are seeing and walk a mile in your shoes. No EPG data for 25.1 (KVTN). I did have data for 36 (KKAP) and 26.1 (KVTH) and 38 (KASN) as well as what I mentioned above. Still no 20.1 (KKYK-Univision) or 49.1 (KMYA-MeTV) data. Is this what you are seeing?

dmatch
Edited by dmatch - 2/9/13 at 8:28am

dmatch, have you ever tried the mc2xml.exe program like I mentioned above? That saves you from even having to do the trial service from SD. Since they are both the same guide data, I would think it would cover you about as well. I just wanted to see what other people thought about doing it that way just to see if it worked just as well for anyone else as it did for me when I went that route.

Oh, and a while back I posted something about Tribune and my contacts with them. I think I might have put up an email address for them as well. Has anyone tried to get into contact with them directly to see if you could find a solution to getting the missing guide data from them?

Yes, I used mce2xml back when I had MCE 2005 when I was trying to build a "roll your own" TV guide and messing with MediaPortal (an open source media center very similar at the time to MCE 2005). The bottom line with me was that MediPortal was more complicated than MCE and the guide data was going to be the same. I don't generally care much for Microsoft applications but MCE 2005 and now WMC 7 work well enough for what they are intended for. Obviously, there is a weak link when it comes to guide data.

I have since completed my "roll your own" system by programming/scripting my own stuff. It's kind of "Jack-legged" but I understand it and it is doing what I need. I am actually using TitanTV's guide data and can schedule some recordings using their web page. It is more customizable than Zap2It. TitanTV has a web interface that uses TVPI format and can schedule programs on some media systems that support that interface. Unfortunately, it is "what you click is what you get" and won't do things like record only new episodes, record daily etc.. Like davenlr I have a big dish satellite system (BUD) and that has always made it a little more complicated when using canned software like WMC, MediaPortal or other media centers.

As far as contacting Tribune, well, like I say, what I have is doing what I need now so I haven't. I don't need Tribune's data currently. I could use it with what I "Jack-legged" but the data doesn't seem to be as complete.

dmatch