The Official SE Virginia/NE North Carolina Thread - April 2003 - Page 2  

Here is an interesting article that came out of this weeks NAB Convention & Conference.

Thanks, Peter. The popping audio is back today on the Masters broadcast.

Thanks to this crummy weather, I can't get the Masters in today for more than about 10 seconds at a time. This is a major reason why we need HD on cable... Oh well, things should improve this weekend. I am also getting the crackling noises. The video quality is generally pretty good, but like the NCAA Tournament, there is a fair amount of artifacts/pixelization at times.

Todd,

I'm not having any problem at all with 3-1 today here in Mathews. Since I changed antennas to the CM-4228, 8 bay bow my digital channels are very stable. I can even lock on any signal strengh over 40.

That's pretty impressive during monsoon season! :D

BTW, can you lock in on 43-1 and 43-2? They appear to be off the air...

43-1 has been off the air almost all day I think. I just checked again.

I thought it was good that the monsoon didn't seem to effect the signal at all.

For the first since I got HDTV 3 months ago, "Ed" on 10-1 is in perfect lipsync tonight! Keep up the good work Les... :)

Not sure if it was just me, but during the Master's today, it went from good sound suddenly to what sounded like a 'busted speaker' with background buzz/noise.. (not present on other channels).. happened right around, 5pm or so i think..

Not complaining though.. still enjoyed it very much. Very beautiful.. Thx
-ian

Ed looked good here, too....(yes, I don't always watch PBS!). Lip sync fine on an SIR-T150.

43-1 down for the count; possibly power problems. I know WTKR-DT also took a hit.

We got lucky, were breaking in our new V-12 genset so we left it on throughout the NorEaster.

As Peter said, NAB was informative. At the PBS sessions, the honchos are moving to HD streaming via IP. We will power down a big chunk of our sat feeds in 2006 and replace them with IP VOD ( Internet Protocol Video On Demand) to the affiliates. $$ savings on sat time.

Note the new slogan:

Whew!

Jh

Upcoming PBS Digital Presentations: High Definition,
Widescreen Standard Definition and Digitally Enhanced

Please Note: The list below should only be used as a reference guide, as it indicates the original feed date and time for upcoming PBS HD and Widescreen SD programs. All
programs listed below are stereo, unless otherwise noted.

April 2003

ROY BEDICHEK'S VANISHING FRONTIER (PBS PLUS)
KERA
1/60
April 1, 2003, at 1:30 PM
HD

AMERICAN MASTERS "Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind"
Thirteen/WNET
1/90
April 2, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NOVA "Runaway Universe" (R)
WGBH
1/60
April 8, 2003, at 8:00 PM
HD

PETER AND PAUL AND THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION
DDE and Margaret Koval
1/120
April 9, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NATURE "Lost World of the Holy Land"
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
April 13, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

AVOIDING ARMAGEDDON
WETA and Safe World Productions
4/120
April 14-17, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD
(change from HD, as listed in the April week-by-weeks)

NATURE "Leopards of Yala"
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
April 20, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

YOUNG DR. FREUD (R)
David Grubin Productions and DDE
2/60
April 20 & 27, 2003, at 10:00 PM
Widescreen SD

THE SHAKESPEARE SESSIONS
Storyville Films
1/60
April 25, 2003, at 10:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NATURE "Big Red Roos" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
April 27, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

MANOR HOUSE
Thirteen/WNET and Wall to Wall
3/120
April 28-30, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NOVA "Japan's Secret Garden" (R)
WGBH
1/60
April 28, 2003, at 2:30 PM
HD *surround sound

May 2003

MANOR HOUSE (R)
Thirteen/WNET and Wall to Wall
6/60
Fridays at 10:00 PM, May 2-June 6, 2003
Widescreen SD

NATURE "Animals Behaving Badly" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
May 4, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

PBS HOLLYWOOD PRESENTS "The Gin Game"
KCET
1/90
May 4, 2003, at 9:00 PM
HD

WARRIOR CHALLENGE
Thirteen/WNET
4/60
Tuesdays at 9:00 PM, May 6-27, 2003
Widescreen SD

NATURE "A Mystery in Alaska"
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
May 11, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

PETER AND PAUL AND THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION (R)
DDE and Margaret Koval
2/60
May 14 & 21, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

KINGDOM OF DAVID: THE SAGA OF THE ISRAELITES
OPB, Red Hill Productions and DDE
2/120
May 14 & 21, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NATURE "War Wrecks of the Coral Seas"
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
May 18, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

AMERICAN MASTERS "Robert Capa: In Love and War"
Thirteen/WNET
1/90
May 28, 2003, at 9:30 PM
Widescreen SD

June 2003

INSIDE THE ANIMAL MIND, A NATURE MINISERIES (R)
Thirteen/WNET
3/60
Sundays at 8:00 PM, June 1-15, 2003
Widescreen SD

GREAT PERFORMANCES "Dance in America: From Broadway -- Fosse" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/120
June 4, 2003, at 8:00 PM
HD * surround sound

OVER ALASKA (R)
KCTS
1/60
June 11, 2003, at 10:00 PM
HD

ALASKA'S GOLD RUSH TRAIN (R)
OPB
1/60
June 15, 2003, at 10:00 PM
Widescreen SD

CLINT EASTWOOD, OUT OF THE SHADOWS, AN AMERICAN MASTERS SPECIAL (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/90
June 18, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

GREAT PERFORMANCES
"Dance in America: Lar Lubovitch's 'Othello' from San Francisco Ballet"
Thirteen/WNET
1/90
June 18, 2003, at 9:30 PM
HD

July 2003

MARTIN LUTHER
Lion TV and DDE
1/120
July 2, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD

SOUNDSTAGE
WTTW
13/60
Thursdays at 10:00 PM, beginning July 3, 2003
HD

NATURE "Earth Navigators" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
July 6, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL "The Quest for Noah's Flood" (R)
National Geographic Television
1/60
July 8, 2003, at 9:00 PM
HD

SECRETS OF THE DEAD "Titanic's Ghosts" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
July 9, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

HISTORY DETECTIVES
OPB and Lion Television
10/60
July 14-17, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Mondays at 8:00 PM, beginning July 21, 2003
Widescreen SD

NATURE "The Urban Elephant" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
July 20, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

SECRETS OF THE DEAD "Bombing Nazi Dams" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
July 22, 2003, at 9:00 PM
Widescreen SD

August 2003

NATURE "Showdown at Grizzly River" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
August 3, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE "Lost in the Grand Canyon" (R)
WGBH
1/60
August 4, 2003, at 9:00 PM
HD

NATURE "Extraordinary Birds" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
August 24, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

DEFIANT REQUIEM
OPB and Brandenburg Productions
1/90
August 27, 2003, at 8:00 PM
HD

NATURE "Springs Eternal: Florida's Fountain of Youth" (R)
Thirteen/WNET
1/60
August 31, 2003, at 8:00 PM
Widescreen SD

Last updated on March 31, 2003

Some recent observations of the Masters. I recently upgraded some of my equipment and now have the capability to receive HD OTA signal via my Dishnetwork receiver or the receiver built into my RCA F38310 TV. Also, yesterday Dishnetwork was broadcasting on one of their satellite channels the Masters in HD. The Dishnetwork feed was the same CBS feed on channel 3-1. So with two different OTA receivers and sat feed I was able to make some comparisions. The audio problems people have noted may be as Peter suggested and hopefully will clear up when 3-1 goes DD 5.1. The CBS feed on satellite was 5.1 and was clean without any clicks, hisses or pops. Both OTA receivers had the clicks and pops. Also the difference in DD 5.1 and the two channel stereo were dramatic. Looking forward to 3-1 going to DD5.1.
Although some had mentioned PQ on the NCAA final four I attributed it to some upconverts of some 4:3 images. With the Masters I saw some pixellation and rough images on fast camaera scans tracking the ball past trees, clouds, etc for the OTA images. Not all the time and not extemely bad but still their. It seemed to be worse for my first generation receiver (RCA TV) than the newer Dishnetwork OTA. These PQ observations did not occur on the satellite signal. I don't know if these image defects are a lack of transmission bandwidth or transmission digital processor speed or my receiver processor speed. It did appear different for the two OTA receivers but it is a hard comparision to make since jumping from on receiver takes a few seconds and the image artifacts appear for very few seconds or less than a second. Just my observations.
Even though I am not a big golf fan, the Masters in HD was great.
Earl

I also compared the OTA signal from WTKR-DT3, WTVR-DT6 (Richmond), Directv 198. I was not too impressed. I also compared the Master PQ with the HD feed from WHRO-DT 15. WHRO HD PQ was far superior IMO.
The Masters PQ in my opinion was far too dominated by the green and was somewhat dark. Maybe if I were more a golf fan I would have seen it in a different light.

I also was using an RCA F38310.

I noted the new title John. I was hoping to congratulate you at NAB but didn't see you all week long (no surprise based on how large the halls have grown!). So, I'll do it now:

Congratulations on your promotion! (We'll have to talk about how this effects your other business).

Congrats John!!!

Thanks, guys!

This just means I'll be hanging out here more often.....got to keep up with the latest news and this is where to get it!

Earl and HJRiver, we really appreciate the comparison info. As more sat HD streams come on-line, this will get interesting.

I suspect some of the issue is the earlier decoders, but it can also be up-convert, transport, and mux issues. It will keep us all busy.

This week Bob and I will be working on a Dolby upgrade, and getting our audio PID to 0x24 instead of 0x 2a, which seems to cause some issues on early STB's.

We also have to change our "Amber" unit (been running on a loaner for about 6 months).

We may have all kinds of hiccups, so bear with us.....

jh

Antenna Selection:

For those of you who are having problems with dropouts of signals, the problem may well be multipath reception signals which confuse the receiver.

I found this web site to have several good articles describing the problem and the solution. They also sell equipment to make a horizontal stack which I could not find locally or in any other place.

Try: www.atechfabrication.com.

The Saint

I think you are correct in saying multi-path could be the reason for frequent drop-outs and freezes.

I had the same problem using a RS V/U-190. Most of the time I had good signal strenght but experienced the freezes. I changed that antenna for a CM-4228, 8 bay bow with a rotor. Now I have steady signals with virtually no freezes or drop outs. If I can get a 40 signal then it the set locks on. I never could get that with the RS.

This is for George at WGNT-DT. I have a Sony HD200 STB. It has all of the network logo graphics built in that are displayed in the favorites list and on the channel banner whenever tuning to a channel. The logo for UPN has dissapeared. It used to be there whenever I would tune to 27-1. I still see the logo on the Direct TV local channel 27. I noticed that the UPN logo on Direct TV channel 27 has changed to RED. It used to be black.

Since it changed to RED, I dont see any logo at all now on WGNT-DT 27-1. All I get are your call letters.

Just thought I would let you know. Is this logo part of the PSIP data??

Thanks

How are things looking to get 41-1 back on the air. Tonight is my second favorite show, "24" (Alias is #1) :)

Did you mean 43-1? 41-1 is WVEC-DT and, as far as I know, we are not having any problems. We also don't have access to the program, "24."

However, we do have to make some modifications to our exciter today so WVEC-DT may not come on until later in the afternoon.

Thanks, Les. I did mean Fox 43-1 (DT29). Peter, you do carry my favorite show, though.

Does anyone know what happened at WTKR last night? "CSI: Miami" (MY favorite show) showed up on 3-1 as 4x3 SD.

Pleeeeeeeeease come back Ted!

About 8:15 after a local news teaser, the picture froze on the news guy. It stayed that way for a good while (more than 10 minutes). They must have had local problems with the HD feed and used the SD feed the rest of the night. Boston CBS was HD.

I noticed that 43-1 is up (sort of). It's pixelated with no audio.

43-1 is back up and running.

Folks, we now have full Dolby 5.1 up encoding/decoding in our plant as it should. We have run several 5.1 tests with "Faces" during feeds from 4-6 PM, and seem to be passing all SW-Lfe/Ls/Rs data. Any comments are welcome. Remember, if it's coming in stereo (not 5.1) from PBS, that means we auto-sense two-channel only and send two-channel only.

When Bob gets back in we hope to change our mux out and solve the 0x2a audio PID problem. This new unit may also let us change our (future) multiple channel streams in a different fashion which will buy back more bitstream space. We'll see.

jh

Thanks, Les. "24" looked good (I hate to say great in an HD forum) :)

This is great John. I will definatly check it out. Is there any way that WVEC-DT could do this? They are sending out 5.1 all the time as detected by my surround processor. This makes the sound very low and unclear at times if the material is only recorded in stereo. The processor is decoding a 5.1 bitstream, therefore the center channel has no information at all. With the other local channels, if it is stereo only, the processor will switch to Pro Logic mode, and direct all dialog to the center channel making it easier to hear.
Peter, does WVEC-DT plan to do something like John has done with the auto switching from 2.0 to 5.1 depending on what is coming in from ABC?
I think your station 13-1 one has the best picture quality out of all the other locals. It would be great if this auto sensing mechanism is something in your station's schedule for our future.

Only a question. Please don't take it the wrong way.

This is a little late but I just read about it on VARTV. Good luck in your new position.

..:: WHRO names new Chief Tech Officer...

WHRO announced Monday that John J Heimerl will assume the position of Chief Technology Officer, effective immediately. Heimerl has been affiliated with HRO since 1976 as a volunteer and on staff since 1993. He served as ITFS Engineer and Chief Transmission Engineer before taking over as Chief Technology Officer. Heimerl will assume responsibility for the management and oversight of WHRO's television and radio engineering, as well as its computing and online services. He will be responsible for all technical development at WHRO, including planning, design, systems, and applied engineering development. Heimerl has a lifetime certification from the FCC in General Radiotelephone and a Lifetime Professional Certification from the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Heimerl replaces Keith Massie, who retired as Chief Technology Officer after twenty years at WHRO..... (4/2/03)

http://www.vartv.com/