Grand Junction, CO - HDTV - Page 2

Alas, no OTA HD in the Grand Valley until later this summer, maybe. I'll keep using my HDTV rooftop antenna to feed my FM tuner addiction instead.


Quote:

According to our engineers, all programs on the KRMJ digital signal will be standard definition until we get the microwave upgraded later this summer. At that time, we will have true HD programming from 3pm until midnight.
Thank you,
Trisha

Can it be true? Could it be possible that we will have HD in the valley?

Thanks audiomagnate, best news we have had in a long time.

My receiver picks up SD KRMJ-DT 17-3.
I don't know why it's there instead of 17-1 or 18-1 where I was looking for it to appear. Signal strength is the same or slightly better than the others.

The only DTV station here with full program information is KJCT-DT 8-1.

Sometimes the Sportsman Channel (11-2) has the wrong aspect ratio.
It remains that way, even for days, until I send an e-mail to KKCO. Within minutes after I send the e-mail, I see a setup menu on 11-2 and then the aspect ratio is corrected. I've done this about 3-4 times in several months.

Emailed RMPBS a couple of weeks ago. Got this reply today.

Tom-

The official date of broadcasting in digital is May 12th. This will be a clone of our analog programming in the initial startup but when we get the upgrade done of the microwave system, we will start to broadcast High Def programming. The "Standard Def" signal will look wonderful compared to the
analog and we are all very excited to get it on the air.

The upgrade to the microwave system has started but some sites are very difficult to get to in the winter months.

Thanks for you interest.

Regards,
Joe McGee
Rocky Mountain PBS
2520 Blichmann Ave
Grand Junction, CO 81505

5/11/05

PBS to launch new GJ station

By Sentinel Staff

Rocky Mountain PBS plans to launch a new digital television station in Grand Junction this week.

The new station is KRMJ-DT Channel 17, which station officials say will complement their existing Western Slope station, KRMJ-TV Channel 18, which broadcasts an analog signal.

Digital broadcasts allow stations to transmit high-definition television programing.

KRMJ-DT will be the fourth station in the Rocky Mountain PBS network to broadcast digitally, station officials said in a statement. Others are KRMA-DT in Denver, which began transmitting in 1999, KTSC-DT in Pubelo and KRMU-DT in Durango, which began operation in 2004.


I don't know if they have begun transmitting yet. My new set should be here in a few weeks.

schaffer970, it's been up for well over a month now, as mentioned in several previous posts.

It looks like CBS and FOX are both on digital channel 5 now (5-1 and 5-2). I guess this proves they have no intention of ever going HD, since you can't fit two HD feeds on one channel.

Okay, how does this work? Currently 11-1 is SD as always, and 11-2, which used to be the Sportsman Channel (gone) is now testing NBC DTV HD with a different program than 11-1 (East coast time zone, two hours ahead).

What is the first HD program to come on in Prime Time? (TitanTV is not telling me this) When there is an HD program on in the evening, doesn't DTV channel 12 need all the bandwidth for it? So then what happens to SD on 11-1?

Now I have to read the manual to see if the receiver can show widescreen HD automatically instead of me having to press the "Ratio" button on the remote.

How are you doing with the HD signal on your system?

Thanks for the heads up Sonywaist! KKCO is indeed broadcasting a 1080i widescreen signal on the old sportsman channel. It's not HD right now because the network feed is just an SD soap opera, but it l'll check it tonight during primetime (Joey).

The signal is fine right now, but to do the best quality HD they'll have to turn off 11-1, but I really doubt that they'll do that.

11-2 is re-broadcasting the raw NBC east coast digital feed, so "Joey" should come on at 6PM in HD, then "Will and Grace" at 6:30, then an hour of SD Scrubs, then "ER" in HD at 8, then black screen during east coast news, then HD Leno and Conan at 9:35 and 10:35 respectively. If you haven't seen Conan in HD, you're in for a real treat, the PQ is just awesome! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Even the SD picture uprezed to 1080i looks good (when it's on; it just goes black or to a peacock screensaver during the time affiliates are supposed to insert their own commercials or programs). Switching from D11-2 to any other local digital channel (or Directv SD) is shocking, the other channels just look horrible. I can't wait to see what HD looks like over this feed tonight. We could see some of the most pristine SD and HD available anywhere during this test period.

It's official. There's HD in GJ. Joey is in 1080i DD2.0. A little compressed, but not too bad. I haven't seen it on my front PJ yet, (watching US Open on UHD) I'll get the antenna to the theater before Conan.

7:30 Joey in SD, just after an add for "11HD" (new logo) and an HDTV give away promo. I've got my 80 in Front PJ set up with the OTA antenna so I'll be ready to give a quality report if they have another HD broadcast. They replaced HD Will and Grace with SD Wheel of Fortune.

1/2 hour of HD tonight, nobody in "the Master Control Room".

Official start date for KKCO HD (even though they are already using the 11 HD logo) is September 19th. Just testing now.

Titan TV shows HD on KKCO tonight, Tuesday Sep 13th starting with Law and Order at 9:00. Here's an excerpt from a recent email:

"Till the 19th we are only testing the equipment. also we are waiting for several more parts to delay the NBC signal one hour for our time zone. The 1080i is only the transport stream, except for the HDTV shows provided by NBC, most of the programing will be 480i upconverted to 1080i. As far as turning off the SD stream, there are issues with closed captioning, feeds to cable and Dish that need to be resolved."

I guess they have the "parts to delay the NBC signal one hour" now. I hope those parts don't degarde the signal we were getting "live" last week.

You've probably noticed that we are only getting a test pattern now. I talked to KKCO this morning and was told that we wouldn't see anything until Monday. Possibly we could see some more testing, but I wouldn't count on it. Hopefully this is the valleys first crack in the HD dam.

On another subject, does anyone know what is happening with PBS? I talked to them some time ago and they were supposed to be working on the microwave towers. I sent an email to the engineer several weeks ago but no reply.

KKCO is broadcasting the Notre Dame/Michigan football game in HD. Apparently everything is working and we should see HD on Monday!

Looks about as soft as UHD, but without the motion artifacts. The sound is not good. I'm guessing the s/n ratio is about 50 dB (major hum) and not even Pro-Logic. That was fun seeing the engineering screen for a few minutes, followed by the "channel dead" display. But at least it's a start, and for me it was exiting to watch the first "official" HD in the valley. Now they have to turn off the SD simocast to up the bandwidth and get some DD 5.1 equipment.

audiomagnate, I'm with you. I saw artifacts a number of times - your right, upping the bandwidth would help. I haven't set up sound from my set the receiver so just listened using the TV speakers. Hopefully we will get better sound. It was exciting to finally watch HD over the air. Now if the other stations will join in - we can at least hope.

Bresnan has put KKCO on 702 and was rebroadcasting HD last night. Apparently Bresnan is/was ready to go. I was rather suprised that they are keeping up. Maybe good things are happening.

I can understand not passing DD 5.1 through until the equipment is in place, but the right/left channel balance is WAY off, at least 6dB. What does that take to fix, and why hasn't anyone at the studio noticed it? I'll send an email and see what happens. Shrek looked good tonight.

Edit: They finally fixed it.

Called Bresnan today regarding a couple of things. I was trying to find out if they will be getting the DCT6400 Phase III STB anytime. And for the second time I asked if they can clear up the channels that come up when you do just the HD channel listing. Currently 550 (HBO-W) is listed as a HD channel (which it isn't) and 701 (Altitude) and 702 (NBC local), which are, are not listed. They are supposed to get back to me on these items.

I also asked if we would be getting any additional HD channels and was told that we would be gettig Universal HD very soon (before the end of the year) and a second channel the CSR couldn't remember what was, soon. Hopefully this will really happen. When I have asked before, all I got was a "were working on it" or some other equally unclear response. This time at least I got something tangible.

Was over at Bresnan today to get a 6412 Phase III HD box. They actually have them but you have to ask. This STB is the one with a HDMI port rather than the DVI port. It also has a SATA port which according to other AVS threads isn't enabled.

Spent some time chatting with a manager type and he said that their penciled in date for additional HD channels is Dec. 12th. That date is tentative as they are waiting for additional equipment. As I stated above Universal HD is one of the channels and the other looks like it will be TNT or TBS (it was late in the day and he couldn't remember which although he said TNT first so I think that is the one).

Anyway, it looks like we will be getting two more HD channels before the end of the year!

Who is regularly watching KKCO HD *OTA* besides me? Audio okay for you?

Haven't noticed any audio problems while watching college football or the TONIGHT show

sonywaist, I called KKCO the other day about audio on the HD channel. I keep getting some "static" for lack of other words. I explained this to the engineer and he said he didn't know what I was talking about. From what I can gather, they are recording the audio stream on some analog equipment and then rebroadcasting it as digital. This may be where the problem is coming from. Also from talking to the engineer they have no way of hearing what they are broadcasting. It sounds like they have a car speaker plugged in somewhere and if they can hear something coming out then everything is ok .

In other news, Bresnan is scheduled to begin broadcasting the additional HD channels today. Talked to someone there today and the new channels weren't up yet this morning but he thought they would be up later today. Also spoke to him about the listing of HD channels using the TV Guide quick menu and then HD. He is going to check with TV Guide to make sure that the HD channels are listed properly (apparently that part of the guide is separate from the rest of the TV Guide).

I watch it sometimes, and the audio is really bad. Bandwidth limited stereo with a gross channel balance problem most of the time. They are still multicasting the SD version which is just plain stupid.

The new HD channels are up on Bresnan as of yesterday. The following is a listing of channel numbers and station. A bit of good news for Christmas!


709 KKCO
711 DHDTV
763 ALT
779 NFLHD
785 UHD
786 TNTHD
787 ESPHD
788 HDNET
789 HDNMV
790 HBODW

The sound was so bad on the Elton John special that I had to turn it off. Right channel way louder than the left, bandwidth and dynamic range limited, but the kicker is the crackling in the right channel at anything above mid level. Whatever they're using to screw up the sound is clipping like crazy.

If you think one man can't make a difference in this crazy, fast paced, mixed up world we live in, you're wrong. I've been complaining to Roger at KKCO about the crappy sound on their digital and HD broadcast for months, but to no avail. I got so fed up with the sound during the Elton John special that I called Gray Communications in Atlanta to complain. They told me to call Rich Adams in Waco Texas. Rich told me he'd have it fixed in a week. Rich is a man of his word. Dana McDonald, VP/GM of KKCO, emailed me today to ask me what I thought of KKCO HD. I told her the channel imbalance/clipping problem was fixed. She said it was fixed because of my complainiing to the bigshots at Gray.

I asked her about DD 5.1 and she said the equipment to do that is $12,000, so it's not going to happen any time soon. I also told her that they should stop multicasting the SD version of the broadcast because it's redundant and hurts the HD PQ. She's looking into it.

KJCT began broadcasting over-the-air 720p HD on 8-1
8-2 is KJCT SD moved from 8-1
(8-0 is analog)

I'm still getting 'static' noises and dropouts on KKCO 11-1 and 11-2, there has been no change; these noises might be due to a PSIP problem that my STB decoder doesn't like. Those of you who have perfect audio on KKCO DTV have different hardware than I do.