Binghamton / Elmira, NY - HDTV - Page 117

Until DirecTV and Northwestern Broadcasting finalize things, you might just try to get by with a VHF antenna connected to your TV for Fox 40.

Out of curiosity, how far are you from the towers and what obstacles are in the way?

I am about 10 to 15 miles away. And there must be something in between me and the towers because I do not get the channel very well and have tried using all different antennas.

I'm about 9.5 miles from the towers, but Crocker Hill is in between. I ended up with the Winegard 7084p antenna on the roof. Probably not something you would want. I put it up when our locals first went digital a couple of years ago. Reception is good, but can be spotty at times.

The comments being left about this on WICZ's website are interesting.
http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=17242
They seem to lean against WICZ / Northwest.

The NAB buys off Congress and forces Dish & Direct to carry every local po-dunk 3rd rate television "broadcaster" based on the argument that these local yokals can best serve the local viewers. Dish and Direct have no choice but to comply and spend millions of dollars for uplink equipment to do this. Then the Binghamton market (which was one of the very last to be made available by the way) is finally made available to local Direct subscribers. And what is the result ? Instead of Fox40 celebrating the fact that they now are able to shove their sub-standard and embarrassing local "newscasts" as well as their tired old re-runs of Two and a Half men but most likely doubling their viewership of their local advertisers (leading to increased ad revenues for Fox40). No what the genius's at Fox40 do within two weeks of being uplinked is pull their signal and then make their ridiculous argument that they (Fox40) should be paid at the same rate as ESPN, TBS and other national broadcasters.
Well it ought to work both ways - if Dish and Direct are forced to carry these locals because it's in the public interest, then these locals should not be allowed to pull their signals because they've got their panties in a twist. The "public interest" pendulum swings both ways. If Fox40 can make the argument that Mick Dwyer's nightly incoherent weather forecasts are a "can't miss" broadcast event then all of us in the Bignhamton DMA should never be deprived of these boozy ramblings - ever.

Might be some hope to getting Fox 40 back on Directv.

Fox 40's owner Northwest Broadcasting asked D* today to add their channels back for a month while they continue negotiating.

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=17371

Wow!
Mr. Brady has a big set of balls. I don't believe for a minute that there are as many DirecTV subscribers switching just because DirecTV had to take down the Fox channels. Especially, since that was done on Northwest's request.

Now DirecTV will get a nasty email from me if they take away the Fox DNS due to this letter. I realize that this could be done at anytime, but this timing would really look bad. Hopefully, DirecTV will resist taking down the DNS to grandfathered subscribers.

I would also suggest to Mr. Brady that he get his station into the 20th century. Use some of the new found funds to upgrade the station.

From D* Twitter page:

"NW Customers:Northwest granted our request to put the channels back on while we negotiate a deal. We're working to restore the channels ASAP"

Since the channels were up for week, that ASAP should be NOW!

Well, probably in time for the Superbowl.

They are up!

Update: Just received an automated phone call from DirecTV telling me that our locals are back up while negotiations continue. (2/4/2011)

I wonder when WBNG (ch12) will have the capability to insert the bottom scrolling banner without having to drop back to SD. Just noticed this with the school closing scrolling banner. WIVT (ch34) an do it.

I really wish they would upgrade their studio equipment. Their newscasts are unwatchable even via OTA on my 52". None of their onscreen graphics are readable, nor are the names on the weather map. Same thing when my wife watches Oprah - can't read any of the on screen graphics. And people's faces look all splotchy too. They really need to realize this is 2011 and not the 1970s anymore.

Same down here an hour drive from Binghamton. Two stations are up to date with their local equipment: WNEP and WVIA. I guess a Nielsen market that covers 20 counties and a lot of advertisers to buy space, just isn't good enough for the rest of the stations to evolve with their viewers. The problem with WBNG appears to be local management, because other Granite stations are getting up to date with physical technology. Down here in this market, corporate decisions are more to blame for technological limbo. You all have a chance, just get people together and let WBNG know you're all watching and you all care about how programs are presented to you on your televisions.

Just wondering if anyone has heard any rumor of when Elmira is going to get locals for D*?? The website says 2011 but no month projection.

DirecTV is pretty close mouthed on the exact date.
For Binghamton, they originally said November 2010 and then it got moved up to October (yea!). But, then was pushed back to November. Then the negotiations interrupted them. First WNBG (it was resolved quickly) and now WICZ (on while negotiations continue).

If other Granite stations are getting up to date, then natrually WBNG will be at or near the last one since it's the smallest market. But it's a good sign they are upgrading other larger Granite stations.

Just like D* finally getting locals, Binghamton market is at the very back of the DMA list, so it was one of the last markets to get locals.

I was watching WBNG Friday night, and it looks like they may have upgraded the equipment that puts the crawler on the screen.

To me at least, the text on the crawler was sharp, which made the video of the news that was on look even more blurry and grainy.

Baby steps I guess, but good to see some investment out of Granite for WBNG.

It still raises the question on whether they can insert the scroll into an HD broadcast without having to drop to SD.

Baby steps I guess.

Now if they would just do something about their obnoxiously big "Storm Tracker" weather alert bug that drops them from HD to SD and reduces the SD picture to about half the size of normal 4:3 so that only about 25% of my widescreen is the actual show I'm trying to watch!

I'm beginning to think that I'll be keeping my DNS for a while.

Will the DN locals here in Binghamton ever be in HD?

The DNS channels are from NYC and are in HD.
And the actual locals are in HD except for The CW and MyNetwiork.

However, getting waivers for them will be next to impossible if you don't already have them.

Maybe DN = Dish Network?

Yeah, that's probably true.
I just forget about them

Since my post above that was about DNS I assumed that it was a typo.

The E* locals here aren't in HD? No wonder they are losing subscribers left and right.

Yeah sorry bout that, I did mean Dish Network. I was just wondering how the locals look. I hate having those black bars on the sides of my TV.

Locals from DirecTV are the same as from OTA. Except DirecTV doesn't offer the two PBS subchannels.

Direct TV has ALL the locals except for PBS? I thought there was some sort of disagrement with WICZ?

No, I said they didn't have the other two PBS sub channels. WSKG has three video channels. 46-1, 46-2, and 46-3, Only the -1 is on DirecTV.

Yeah I understand that, what I was asking is if Direct TV is going to keep broadcasting ALL of the locals or get rid of some of them again because of the disagrements with some of the networks?