Toledo, OH - HDTV - Page 9

You don't need a CableCard to receive the HD locals... I am subscribed to their basic extended package (channels 2-70ish) and I can access the HD locals without any problem. I believe they are required to provide the local HD channels unencrypted. They have wording to this effect in this PDF I found on their website: http://www.buckeyecablesystem.com/do...-ratesheet.pdf

The CableCard just allows you to tune any of the encrypted channels you'd normally need a cable box for.

First a belated thanks to Nate for the info.

Is anyone else having trouble with HD stations locking up?
Specifically 624.

Also I am having some minor problems with the 30 second skip working once but the second skip swaps the tuners, it is weird.

Thirdly I see more pixilation than in the past. My imagination?

No problem... while I can only get the locals, I have noticed that the PBS feed is much more pixelated than it was via OTA. I assume Buckeye is compressing the heck out of it, which is sad since PBS has some of the best HD sources avaiable.

I would probably just go back to using my OTA antenna, but I'm going to be recording soon with my MythTV box and a PCHDTV card, and it doesn't like when the signal drops out on OTA broadcasts.

I finally got my OTA antenna hooked up to my HR10-250, and I noticed something odd. the TiVo shows WTOL at 11-1, but I don't get a signal there. When I force it to scan for channels, it finds WTOL at 17-3, 17-4, and 17-5: IOW, right where it's supposed to be I'm not sure how to remap channels on the HR10-250, or even if I can, but I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else in Toledo had run into a similar anomaly.

paulr
Sorry, I do not have D* yet.
But please post your progress, I am planning to go to D* when they get the Mpeg4 and HD LIL. Since I live in Bedford up here in Michigan I will get Detroit on the satellite and Toledo OTA. So I am interested in your situation.

Thanks

ITS FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buckeye called today to say they were flashing the Moto6412 to fix the firewire output downrez problem. I am happy to report it is FIXED!!!!!!

Thank you Buckeye cable....you have a very very happy customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum, and I also plan to be new to the world of HD. I'm a current customer of DirecTV, having defected about a year ago from Buckeye. I'm looking to purchase HD service in the near future, and my options seem to be:

Sticking with DirecTV and using an antenna for most of the HD networks (I presume).

Going back to Buckeye and getting the HD networks directly.

It seems that there are some other variables to think about. I'm a current Tivo user and would love to be able to record the HDTV channels. I'm also considered a HDTV that employs a CableCard.

Basically, I'm hoping that some other people can detail their thoughts on receiving HD in the Toledo area. Success stories, recommendations, equipment lists are all welcome.

Thanks!

Josh

Welcome, Josh!

I started my HDTV service with Buckeye, but I was never satisfied with the UI, performance, or capacity of the Motorola DVR. It's better than nothing, but it's no TiVo. Now I have a DirecTV HR10-250 that has given me flawless service. With an OTA antenna, I get the local stations with good reception.

Buckeye does have some advantages over DirecTV; chief is up-front cost, since you can rent their box for $10/month. In addition, they have TNT-HD (and maybe a couple of other channels), which DirecTV doesn't currently carry. BCSN and some of the other Buckeye-only programming is nice, too.

Thanks for the quick reply, Paulr. I have a few follow-up questions...

Do you have to mount the OTA antenna on the outside of your house?

Can you Tivo the channels you pick up with the OTA antenna?

How difficult is it to switch between the DTV channels and the OTA channels?

Thanks!

1. I had my antenna (a cheap Radio Shack amplified omni) in the attic for a while, but it wasn't great. I moved it outside-- and it's still not great, especially for NBC-24. Time for a new antenna. Lots of folks report good results with a Silver Sensor or similar antenna, but it didn't work well for me because of the location of my house.

2. The TiVo records the OTA and satellite channels seamlessly. It can record on any combination of two inputs (so, two OTA, two satellite, one of each) while playing back a third program-- quite handy.

3. The OTA and DTV channels are in the same channel guide, so there's no difference in switching between them.

Thanks for the info. The whole thing still feels like a daunting task, especially to my wallet. Along with the new DTV receiver, I think I need to purchase a new DTV dish for the roof as well as the OTA antenna. Fold installation charges into all this and I'm looking at quite the investment just to get the programming into the house.

Hmmmm. Perhaps I need to think about this a bit more...

http://www.robichaux.net/blog/archives/000569.html has some more information, although admittedly it's dated. The cheapest long-term route is to buy a Samsung SIR-T151 on eBay and put up an OTA antenna. Total cost should be <$200. If you want ESPN, DiscoveryHD (my favorite channel), or any other non-broadcast HD, then Buckeye is most cost-effective.

Welcome

I am currently with Buckeye but plan to go the DirecTV when they get their satellite goes up and Mpeg4 is in place.

I want to get away from Buckeye for personal reasons (The Blade thing), but have found them quite good @ service.

I was a former customer of Voom before they went out of business so I still have their box and antenna for OTA. From Lambertville the sensor works great.

I might saggest checking out Antennaweb.com for info on what antenna and the location of the towers in relationship to your residence.

Good luck.

OK, I've gone to antennaweb, and it recommends that I get a "medium directional antenna." And it seems that most of the local networks fall within the 57-67 degree compass orientation.

Now, I really have no knowledge about this sort of thing at all. Is it possible to permanently point the antenna in a single direction and receive all these channels?

mine varies from 119 to 132, but I am only 14-15 miles away.
How far away are you? I'm guessing 20-25, a decent antenna should do it.

I set up my voom stb at a friends in Sylvania west of Centennial Rd. and got all the stations with a set top antenna I had from ABC Warehouse.

I'm actually only between 11 and 16 miles from the networks I would wish to receive.

You should be fine for Toledo OTA. With my sensor I have been able to aim it north and get Detroit stations (Although dependent on weather) or point it south and get BG PBS.
If all you are looking for is ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox a small decent antenna should do it.

Also I find the OTA HD to be much better PQ than Buckeye, though the DVR is cable only and I am addicted to the DVR.

I'm not really too concerned with the DVR. I mean, we already have Tivo, and I can just move that box to another television. Recording the HD broadcasts are not THAT important.

Or I can shell out the big bucks for the DirecTV HD Tivo unit.

Welcome,

My 2 cents:

I am very happy with Buckeye and the 6412, I love the DVR and the fact that I can record anything that is in HD in the same HD quality. I watch a lot of broadcast HD so this is important to me.

I also have High speed internet from them so this was important also.

Two things I would change, larger hard drive, and PPV or On Demand in High Def.

You may want to check out this thread over @ SG(cant say the word on this forum, you may want to PM me). It doesn't do me any good, but if you are a Direct customer already, there are some great retention deals for their HD DVR.

http://www.*************.us/showthread.php?t=81180

And I agree the 6412 is a good unit also. It has been very reliable.

When do you suppose DirecTV will make the Mpeg4 available to Toledo? Is this something that gets rolled out gradually like the locals? And if the locals are just now about to hit the 12 major markets (in November), how soon do you think they'll hit Toledo? We're like 70th, I believe, in market size.

Just wondering if I should wait it out.

Josh

I live in Bedford. Monroe County Michigan is considered part of the Detroit DMA.
When the HD locals come(Detroit in #9 or10) I will get Detroit on the satellite and Toledo OTA.
From what I hear(at the forum that cannot be named) Toledo is sometime in 2007.
Sorry
As far as Mpeg4 I think they are waiting for a satellite to go up in October. The slow down on the launch and then the switch out of equipment that is needed to be compatible with Mpeg 4 may take a while (1stQtr 06)

This is all second hand from AVS and SG forums.

I will enjoy my HD from Buckeye until D* gets it all together including their whole house solution.

FWIW, I thought I'd let you know that WTVG-DT 19 really gets out a great signal. As an OTA HDTV viewer and TV DXer on the northside of Indianapolis (186 miles from the WTVG transmitting tower), I see this station more often than any other DTV station over 150 miles during times of tropospheric enhancement. At the moment it is booming in with a very strong signal. I've attached a screen shot of the weather channel (13-3) that I caught a few minutes ago.

Steve

KentStater72,
Have not done my homework, what is the advantage for the MPEG-4 system? That's a streaming file type, DirecTV going to use streaming and if so how will that signal handle the transmisson up/down? I'll start doing my homework- school's in again!
Videditor

All right, check this out.

I just got off the phone with my father, who lives out in Monclova. The DirecTV installers just left his house after installing the necessary HD equipment. My dad tells me that the DirecTV-supplied roof antenna "doesn't work," and that he's gone back to the set top rabbit-ears, which he says work just fine.

What do you make of this? I wouldn't doubt operator error in this case, or even installer error.

[quote=videditor]KentStater72,
Have not done my homework, what is the advantage for the MPEG-4 system? That's a streaming file type, DirecTV going to use streaming and if so how will that signal handle the transmisson up/down? I'll start doing my homework- school's in again!
Videditor[/QUOTE

I am not a techie.
In essence mpeg4 gives providers more capacity for HD. Both D* and E* will be moving to it. I do not know if this is something that is a cable issue. In fact I would like to know where Buckeye is in delivering more HD in the future.

[quote=KentStater72]
MPEG-4 does provide more capacity. For example, an MPEG-2 stream typically runs at 3.7 Mbps for a standard definition signal, MPEG-4 is expected to reduce that to 2-2.5 Mbps. A couple years behind MPEG-4 is MPEG-7 which promises another improvement in compression. Hence more channels can be carried in the same bandwidth block. You can also expect another wholesale equipment changeout if MPEG-7 gets traction.

The downside is that more compression also causes a more prominent impact from errors. The idea is that if you keep the number of signal errors constant, MPEG-4 will exhibit a more significant errors (tiling, frame loss, etc.) than MPEG-2

There will likely be a couple of HD channels added to the Buckeye lineup probably early next year, no word yet on which ones. You could also expect that Buckeye will be offering digital simulcast (all of the current analog channels available in digital for digital subscribers). This will also be available the first part of next year.

Cheers,
Spektator

[quote=spektator]
I know they've been wrking on getting us ESPN2 HD but like KentStater says it will more than likely not be until 2006. This is what they had to say in reply to my quesiton:

Good morning,
This is a channel that they are looking at, but all of the contract have to be worked out before we can add any channel to our lineup. We pay each channel that we carry and before that can happen we have to work out an amount that we pay per the number of customers that we have.
If we are able to get the channel I was told it would not be before the end of the year.

I recently purchased the DISH Network with the HD package thinking I could get local channels in HD too. I do get local channels but after some research and a call to DISH they said I have to get an OTA antenna. I checked out antennaweb but it shows PBS from Bowling Green is DTV. So, I guess my question is, is it possible for me to get local channels in HD from Toledo? Any help would be appreciated.

Oh yeah, I live in Findlay.

I'm looking into purchasing a HD tuner to receive HD channels from my Buckeye Expanded Basic. Will I need a QAM capable tuner, or will any OTA tuner work? ie Samsung SIR-T151

Dale