Kansas City, MO - HDTV - Page 34

Craash,

Does that mean that the 8000HD will be generally available to TWC-KC customers next month, or will you have to be a beta tester to get it? If so, any idea what one needs to do to be one of the beta testers?

Well, the current model (explorer 8000) was pushed back 2 different times - i.e. it was due in January for beta, but didn't start testing until February and was set to go gold in March but didn't until April.

So, IF beta stars in January (and only beta testers will have the early boxes), I would expect it to become available to the general public 1-2 months after that. I would be surprised if you could pick it up at your cable store (the last stage which happens once a box has good supply and is deemed "stable) before the end of March. Understand, this is totally a guess on my part based on experience with other boxes (Exp. 8000, Pioneer HD, SA HD, ect).

As far as becoming a beta tester, they usually have a fairly small group just because it isn't a situation where there are many different configurations like there is in the pc world (roadrunner had a large group of "earlybirds"). You pretty much have cable in, and one of 4 or 5 configurations for source out. This means it is very difficult to get an early box as a beta tester.

How about one more teaser? I had asked about the drive size (80 or 160 GB depending on the Cableco) my buddy said the following:

The S/A answer for storage is external 1394 boxes

I realize that currently the firewire ports are inactive, but this does give me hope. Imagine slapping a firewire box that accepts normal hard drives next to your 8000HD. You could have a drive that you archived Football on, one for . . . well, what else is there? :-)

Anyway, it may or may not happen, but the fact that SA thinks that way excites me.

Ok, ONE more teaser.

Multi-Room should show up in 04 Q1--2 also.

Craash, excellent info, thanks for the continued updates.

GaryBernhardt,
You posted a couple of pages back about your Comcast dropouts and pixilation. You stated that since you never had problems with D* that you know you wiring is good. Well, that may seem correct, however, D* uses higher compression rates on all of their signals due to the fact that all satellite has less bandwidth than cable. So, the fact they are pushing less bandwidth and using higher compression means less need for quality cabling. In fact, when I was installing cable for TWC about 4-5 yrs ago, there were houses I would have to completely redo when they switched due to the fact that D* would install all RG59 Coax, and the digital services for TWC required RG6. I would assume that you have a decent amount of Db loss from splitters in your house and this is going to be your issue, depending on when your D* was installed. I would find it hard to believe that D* would still be using RG59 at this point, so if it was installed within the last 5 yrs, you should be OK on cable type. Also, the cable tech should have noticed if you were still using RG59(unless he just didn't do good work).

Hope that helps.

Stole this idea from Bradtothebone. Thought we could keep updated/edited/sorted and re-post periodically. Last on the list = the best, first on the list = worst and needs some pressure etc.

KC OTA outstanding issues list (incomplete!)

WDAF (FOX) - adequate POWER, HD, DD5.1, Program guide
KMCI (?) - HD, DD5.1, Program guide
KCMO (WB) - HD, DD5.1, Program guide
KPXE (PAX) - HD, DD5.1, Program guide
KCWE (UPN) - DD5.1, Program guide
KCPT (KCPT) - DD5.1, Program guide
KSHB (NBC) - DD5.1, Program guide
KCTV (CBS) - DD5.1, Program guide
KMBC (ABC) - DD5.1, Program guide more than 24 hrs ahead

I thought I posted this but dont see it, maybe I am losing my mind.
Anyway this is off subject but you guys are local.
Has anyone rented a colorfacts unit to calibrate their HD set?
Or know of someone that does this? ISF?
I searched and found some people on ISF but wanted to know if anyone had any dealings with someone etc.

craash

what is the usergroup for yahoo?

Josh

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/explorer_8000/

Yahoo Group dedicated to the 8000 (SARA and Passport).

Signup IS required (free).

Michael, I would also like to get a color analyzer, haven't found anyone in the area to rent one, but if you go to the ISF homepage, you can search for calibrators in the area. I just had a buddy get one done by an individual listed in the Kansas section, and he was pleased. Unfortunately, I don't want to drop the 250-300 to get it done(OK, wife won't let me).

Michael, just found this:

http://www.milori.com/products/cf650...zer_rental.asp

What OTA Antenna's are all you using? I live in Olathe and wanting to possibly put up a antenna. Havent decided on the attic or roof as of yet.

jeffvb9,
I got a channel master from Lowes ~100.00. I have mine in my attic. Warning they are bigger than you think and take up a lot of space in the attic.

kcjefff,
I have been following some threads on calibration of samsung dlps which I have and they talk about that site. Its 300 for a month and evidently it takes quite awhile to do all this as well as knowledge.
check out the graphs etc. here http://www.milori.com/articles/image_quality_issues.asp
Maybe its best to leave to someone that knows what they are doing. I get the concepts but I dont know if I am comfortable with it. I even have instructions if you are interested.
Can you pass on the name of the guy? I was leery of just picking one off that list.

Michael,

I had my Hitachi RPTV calibrated by Dave Levy of Abbey Road Home Theater in DesMoines. (AbbeyRoadHT@mchsi.com) He did mine and a couple of others during a Friday/Saturday trip. Since mine was the first Hitachi he'd done at the time, he really spent a lot of time on it, getting it right (he got there mid afternoon and worked until almost midnight). Since he spent the night at our house, I didn't pay him for transportation (the other two guys split that). He walked me through the process, and I learned a lot. When he left, all the proper settings were "centered" in the user menus, which allows for slight tweaking as needed, although I've pretty much left it where he set it. I thought it was money very well spent, as the colors were not very good out of the box, and even after setting up with Video Essentials. I had also done some other tweaks recommended on ***************.com, but the difference was night and day after Dave was done. I don't remember exactly, but I believe I paid him around $375.

I don't know if he has any DLP experience, but he doesn't seem to be scared to try anything.

I'm sure there are others out there just as good, but my experience with Dave was very positive.

Brad

I live in Olathe also and I have a RadioShack VU-90 mounted on my roof with a tripod. It is 5 years old and works great for all of the KC digitals (except FOX4, of course).

My coax is all RG-6 and I have one splitter in the system.

I live close to 127th and Mur-Len.

I have a Winegard HD7210P. I originally had it in the attic but moved to the chimney. The reception now is great (I'm south of 160th & Metcalf). I'm not sure how much of the good reception is due the specific antenna I have or the fact that I moved it outside. I think having it outside has helped the most.

Regarding:
The reason I believe the wiring is ok because I did it myself and was initially running Comcast digital across it. This was pre-HD. Then I switched to D*. I wouldn't dispute that I might need to boost the signal, I just thought it was surprising that I was having problems. The problems show up most on HD, but sometimes on the digital channels. I never had this on digital channels before.

Thanks for the info.

GB

Has anyone else been having problems picking up KCPT's signal lately? When I do a scan, all it sees is 19-1, but when I tune to that, nothing shows up, and I get a "Searching for signal" message from my Samsung 160.

Anyone?

No, but I STILL cannot get my Mitsubishi to translate the PSIP info for WB-62 (DT-47). I still get NOTHING.

OK, they did show up last ( Sunday 12/7 ) night, but none more than 20%. Must just be my location.

Did anyone experience audio problems with the Chiefs/Denver game yesterday. I was getting the game via Comcast and KCTV. The first half had audio dropouts and at one point the audio was completely gone for about 4-5 minutes then it came back on and was fine for the rest of the game. Anyone else have these problems? Anyone know what the problem was?
Greg

I saw the drop-outs also. It was only on that one channel (CBS) and didn't effect the analog channel (Non-HD CBS) on TWC so I suppose the problem could have been an issue at the stadium, or on the feed to the national, or on the distribution to the locals, or - in my case - from the local to TWC.

I would bet it was an issue with the HD truck.

I saw drop outs too. In the first quarter it seemed to be a stadium problem because I didn't notice any dropout in the commercials. I switched to radio (101.1) early in the first quarter and stayed there through the first half. Switched back to HD audio during the second half.
I saw two or three video glitches durning the game too. They weren't too severe and thankfully they didn't happen during a sports play.

Bubba

Sadly the audio drop outs were gone in the second half which allowed me to witness a grade A ass whipping in HD...

Too bad we couldnt get Kstate to play for us

Instead of K-State playing for us, I would have been happier with K-State COACHING for us. The second half non-adjustments and benching of priest left me

I got the dropouts and an echo on an OTA feed, but the DirecTV NFLST feed was fine, so it must have been something with KCTV.

Forgive my ignorance, and I'm sure the answer is "yes", but I must ask anyway. . . .

Was the error-free DTV feed HD?

Yeah! The line went that way but the ball went the other way. How many times does that work? In our case a lot!

Yes. Interestingly enough, I could get the CBS HD game (Chiefs) on both OTA and DirecTV Sunday Ticket, but the Fox game (Enhanced def.) was blacked out on DirecTV (since it was on Channel 4).

I don't quite understand the blackout rules this season on the Sunday Ticket package...

I was trying to watch the Chiefs game on KCTV-HD via TWC. Suddenly the audio disappeared and after several minutes I saw an image saying, "Subscription Service- KCTV HD-- To subscribe call 913-451-4646"

I called TWC to scream but after about 6 minutes of holding the game came back on. I wonder if that image was sent out accidentally while trying to fix the problems and I wonder if that is something they are preparing to utilize in the future if they make us start paying additional for HD service.

Shawn

Micheal, his name is Erik Hayes, his contact info is available at the ISF page.