Albany, NY - HDTV - Page 52

Next week I have scheduled to have a technician from TW pay a visit to my home to investigate continuing problems with my cable service. Currently, TW provides me with digital cable (DigiPIC 4000 package), an SA8300HD-DVR and RoadRunner services. I have had RoadRunner for approximately 40 months and experienced few disruptions to my broadband network service. During the past week I have had three outages with RR where the cable modem lost connection to TW's network and service was mysteriously restored a few hours later and remained solid until the next disruption after a couple of days. I have made no recent changes regarding my home PC/network or in-house coax cable connections.

The cable TV problems are primarily, a faint video-hum which is more noticeable on the SD channels, and a prominent ghosting/poor picture on channel 6-WRGB. I live in Slingerlands, not too far from the Helderbergs, but have no major problems with local cable channels 8-WXXA, 10-WTEN or 13-WNYT. I live on a street (older infrastructure) where each house (mix new/old) is on a 1 acre lot, not in a densely populated neighborhood. My house was constructed during 1998 and is set approximately 150' from the road with the coax cable buried from the street pole to the house. Both the electrical service and coax cable enter the same side/area of the house. I have tried various grounding options, filters, etc., to no avail. The video problems are evident on all TV's, 1 DTV and 2 analog. The house coax cable is RG-59, but I ran an RG-6 cable from where TW's cable enters the basement to the DTV, which made no difference. I'm under the assumption any ground interference is coming from outside.

I'm wondering if any Forum members may be able to share their hypothesis regarding what could be causing the video hum, ghosting and network problems and offer some potential solutions? Hopefully your recommendations will help the TW technician better trouble-shoot and resolve these problems.

Hi -- I'm not too far from you - I'm in Delmar. The sort of problems you are having sound like poor cable connection/bad grounding. The ghosting on 6 is a real indication of a bad ground as the poor ground allows your cable to act as an antenna for lower numbered VHF channels.

The intermittent dropping of service also sounds like a poor connection.

My cable feed is up in the air and has needed replacing 3-4 times over the years.

In the meantime, be sure all your cable connections are finger tight.

Let us know what you find out!

Craig

Probably a bad Cable and/or Connection from your house to the street.

The ghosting on WRGB can be understood by a FAQ on their web site.
http://www.wrgb.com/special.asp?selection=faq#tvfaq
Basically, you should be able to disconnect the cable from your house and have only snow or a snowy black and white image on channel 6. If your TV is blank, there's a problem on the street. If you see a color image, it's leaking into the cable inside your house.

I had a similar problem with my Roadrunner a few months ago. The first technician changed the spiltter, but the problem came back a week later. The second technician insalled a new F connector on the input to the splitter, and Roadrunner problem was cured. The TV feeds were never effected by the bad connection, only Roadrunner.

Hum in the picture may be a ground loop. Ground loops occur when the green ground wire and the white neutral wire are connected together in more than one place. The only green/white connection should be in the main power panel and no-where else, including any subpanels. Another possibility is a problem on the power pole.

Kind of OT, but since this an Albany thread, i'll go ahead...
Anyone have any dealings with Towne TV in Rotterdam? I am starting to look for a new TV, and a pair of Paradigm ADP-370 Rear Speakers. I didnt even know that Towne TV carried Paradigm, which puts them a step up in my book.

Anyway, hows their selection, prices, salesmen, etc.?? Even if I buy off the internet, there are so few places that have the Tvs set up properly, not like Best Buy, etc. where they split the feed 50 ways. And forget about Hippo's.....I wouldnt spend your money there.....well maybe your money, but you get my point.

Thanks for any info.

Mike

Will WXXA (Fox) be live OTA before the superbowl? the target was Jan 2005 - will they make it?

Bad News - no OTA broadcast of the Superbowl - I just got this e-mail from WXXA:

"
WXXA-TV is waiting for FCC action on our request to construct a DTV transmission system. Once this is received, we will be broadcasting a 720P data stream which will include all HD programming from the Fox network. We are expecting approval at any time, however construction time will be approx 120 days after approval is received. This will now be after the "Super Bowl" is played.

Cheers

Sargent R. Cathrall
Chief Engineer

"

Hey...anyway you could e-mail this guy back and ask him why the HD Picture Quality is so bad on TW Ch. 1808. It's way over compressed. I was hoping it would get better as the NFL season went on...but it hasn't.

Since they're waiting to work on the DTV Transmission System....maybe they can find the time to work with Time Warner to improve the Picture Quality before the NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl.

I purchased (3) appliances: a refrigerator, washer and dryer (~$6K) from Town TV; located on route 146/Carmen Road around August 2001. After determining the exact models I wanted and price comparing, Towne TV had everyone else beat by a significant difference. The appliances were delivered and installed as advertised. The only negative I experienced was I purchased their appliance warranty at their recommendation and when I had occasion to use it two years later I initially had problems with the warranty company honoring their policy; and when I called Towne TV for help they told me they stopped doing business with that company and I was SOL. The warranty company eventually made good on their policy and my appliance was fixed. But I felt hassled by the process. If you purchase anything through Towne TV, I recommend to get the manufacturer's warranty not theirs.

Can anyone here explain why WRGB did not (could not?) show the Colts/Chargers game on Sunday? Wish we could have seen it....

thanks,
Paul

Yes, but we couldn't watch ANY game (SD or HD) at 1:00 pm, even though the national broadcast was the 1:00 pm Colts/Chargers. Is this because they had to choose between that game and the 4:00pm Jets/ Pats game?
If so, why aren't all Sundays "double header days"? They must have lost a lot of viewers when My Dog Skip came on at 1:00.

Paul

Thanks for the info. I figured there was a reason in there somewhere. Its just tuff to miss a good game like that, though I was psyched to see the Pats come to their senses against NY.
So what's on tap for this week?

will we get Bills or Jets @1 on CBS/WRGB this sunday? where can Ifind the info?

http://www.zap2it.com/

Plugging in an Albany Zip code, I see they're running the Jets/Rams on Sunday at 1.

TWC Service Update! A technician from TimeWarner was scheduled to come to my home last night between 6:30 - 8:00 PM. The technician arrived at approximately 6:40 PM and as luck would have it, was a very nice, professional, courteous and "knowledgeable" young man. After viewing the poor reception/ghosting problem on channel 6, even though it was dark, he went to the pole on the street to evaluate the signal. He reported the signal was OK at the street and ran a new cable from the pole to my house (~150'). In the basement he connected the new cable and installed a new ground block. The signal on the TV improved significantly but still seemed a little off. The technician then made a new RG-6 cable to run from the basement to my DTV located in the family room and wallah... the picture had improved even more. Come to find out I had both an outside and inside cable problem and could not see much improvement until the outside cable had been replaced. Unfortunately, now I have to replace RG-59 cable with RG-6 to achieve the best signal possible.

What is the opinion of the Forum participants regarding RG-59 versus RG-6 for CATV to deliver digital signals as well as broadband network support? Will RG-6 really provide any significant difference, or am I just imagining it does?

Most RG6 is double shielded. The shielding in RG59 varies significantly. The cheapest RG59 has a single loose braid with less than 100 % coverage. CATV connections require double shielding to eliminate over the air signal leakage. Don't trust the coax jumper cables that come packaged with your VCR, many of them are poorly shielded. You can get away with low quality coax for an antenna, but not for CATV.

RG6 has slightly less loss than RG59, but loss is not the issue.

Thanks for your reply. I agree in my situation (ghosting/faint video hum) that shielding seems to be more important than signal loss. Knowing the individual who built my house (1998) if it saved him $.02/foot he would use the cheapest RG-59 cable. The only coax connection in my setup is from the ground block to the STB (SA8300HD-DVR). I use component inputs from the STB & DVR to the TV. One interesting note was the cable technician informed me they had gone to a harder jacket on their exterior cable to limit the damaged caused to it when sub-contractors come through after installation to bury the cable. I'm wondering if during the past 7 years TW has upgraded it's exterior/interior cables to better shield digital signals?

Does anyone have info on the new HD Movies on Demand? It's on TimeWarner channel 1800 with only one movie listed.

I can't provide any additional information other then to confirm what you are seeing on channel 1800. I'm kind of glad the HD movies are purchased for an additional cost... otherwise TW might have an excuse to increase our rates.

Lufters wrote:
Since they're waiting to work on the DTV Transmission System....maybe they can find the time to work with Time Warner to improve the Picture Quality before the NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl.

I've seen a lot of your posts about PQ. So I have to ask:

How far from the screen is your viewing position?

How you called TW in to measure signal strength and bandwidth?

What type of connectors and cable (is it RG6, component or DVI?)

Do you have a lot of splitters?

You obviously have a kick a** system. If you have addressed all of these, maybe you should consider plasma instead of rear projection.

JeffD2
What makes you think Plasma will have a better picture than a good quality rear projector?

Paul

Obviously your very new to this....

First of all....Digital is Digital. It's either you get the signal or you don't. Digital PQ would have nothing to do with the Signal coming in. If you had a bad signal you would get picture break ups, audio drop outs, etc. I think your still thinking old school Analog.

My signal is perfect.....believe me! I made sure everything was on the Mark since day one. I also have a very good friend who is a tech @ Time Warner (he's over all the time to play Xbox). The only thing I possibly haven't done is changing out my 8000HD box for the new 8300HD one since I heard the PQ may be a little clearer.

I am sitting 15ft from my TV. I know a good HD Picture when I see one (I'm a very early adopter like many who frequent this board). Take a look at HDNet. That's a good High Definition Picture!! Full Bandwidth! Time Warner has to send it that way due to the contract HDNet makes them sign on Bandwidth allocation.

Our local Fox Ch. 1808 on TW is not really true HD...not enough bandwidth. Ever hear of Macro Blocking and the Dancing Grass effect?? Pay close attention to the grass during tomorrows NFL games on Ch 1808. You can see the grass actually move while the camera is still. This needs to be fixed! The Picture is no where as sharp as it could be.

In regards to your Plasma / Rear Projection remark. Let's put it this way...my friend, the Time Warner Tech I mention...he's been hooking up new HD TV's (includes all technologies) for years. He says he hasn't seen a better Picture than my Mit 65411..to this day!!....and that's without Calibration (which I will be getting done in Feb. after I move).

I really like spending $20,000 on a 60' TV that looks it's best on a wall turned off!

Could very well be a flaw....or maybe some kind of software issue they still haven't got a handle on. On the main HD AVS Boards I read that Fox is still working out the bugs. But I still have to believe it's not really Fox since it looks so much better on the ESPN Highlights. Maybe the main bugs are between them and the affiliates.

So who's gonna e-mail WXXA?....or maybe some of them read this board. If they do...CHOP CHOP!!. I want to watch the Steelers win the Super Bowl in good quality HD!!

Two comments to offer. Yes I agree, when watching a good HD feed like MNF on ABC my 40" projection set looks all as good as any of the plasma sets I have seen at Best Buy or Sears (the only advantage I see to plasma is space saved by it's size). The second thing is that when watching an HD picture on at least my TV, you can actually get very close to the screen, the picture resolution is like looking at a direct view TV, so you can actually sit closer if you wanted to. Unfortunately, HDTV is still in it's "infancy" and the local stations and cable companies are still "learning" how to deliver the product reliably. I only found out I could get HDTV last year after having my set for six months - the store I bought it from was not knowledgeble. It's forums like this and albanyhdtv.com that provide users a resource to share experience and information.