Jacksonville, FL - HDTV - Page 51

Gator- Yeah I figured that was the case, hopefully they will catch on one of these days. Dont we have someone on the board that works for WTEV? Maybe he can bring this situation up to mgmt or in a meeting.

As far as if ESPN2 will be added to Comcast, I have heard in other forums that YES Comcast does have the rights to carry it. It is another question however if it will be live on Comcast on Jan 6th. - I wont hold my breath..(sorry Comcast but you need to step it up a notch as far as your HDTV options goes). - who knows they may surprise us.

The picture quality issue with Fox 30 and CBS 47 has been going on for over a year. It is the same issue with cable. I have sent numerous e-mails to the head enginner and station manager and have sent video tapes. They advised me that I was the only one reporting the issues and it is my setup or something where I live. I also reported this to D* seeking assistance. At this point it is ridiculous.

A couple of more things. First, the issue with channel 47 started on 12/03, channel 30 it was 07/04. The following is the behavior I have been noticing since that time:

1. PQ can be fantastic and degrade in a drop of a hat and then go back and forth.

2. You will notice at times and more when it is a local broadcast, a flash of yellow in the picture.

3. At times you will see a jump in the picture which is a quick flash. When this happens and you watch it in slow motion, it is a double image of that scene. I sent 2 video tapes to the station with this exact issue. I also have the same issue recorded on Tivo right now which I can transfer to VHS tape.

4. Also, periodically, I notice the color become more defined or stronger in the picture and you can then see it fade right after that.

There must be some explanation for this. I notice this behavior with D*, comcast cable, and OTA on all 3 of my TV's. Fox 30 and CBS 47 had the best quality for a long time and these issues started. I hope someone from the station reads this and takes action. At this point all I have been told is that is my problem.

mattq - a little more information would be helpful - ie. general location, reciever(s) used, etc.

What you describe would bother me too, but it does sound like you are the only one having those issues. Unless someone else here chimes in, I certainly have had none of those issues in the last year or two.

I have noticed in the last month or so (probably about the time Jerry - WTEV was working with PSIP) a interesting drop off when watching WAWS-DT OTA, in other words the picture just goes black for a second and then back on (signal strength - 100%) this happens about every 10-15 minutes and is regular, it also happens with my old Hughes clone and my new Hughes HTLHD.

Jeff- I have seen the momentary blackout too but didn't concern myself over it.

Picture quality on WTEV and WAWS has been excellent, especially with the HD broadcasts. I rarely watch anything else except the Jaguars game and that was a bit fuzzy, but then it was about the same PQ as all the SD channels.

I only had two complaints for Jerry about his signal-
1. When first began to mess with the PSIP before Christmas, it went back on with errors that essentially took him off the air for my PSIP required receivers. He has corrected that and all is fine again.
2. The tired old "forgot to flip the switch" for HDTV programming. Hopefully, some day they will automate that process. I have done some reading on this and apparently, the automation eqipment such as that fr5om Harris is just now coming on the scene so, once again, budgets and such will delay that from seeing Jacksonville for awhile.

Anyway, I'm enjoying sunny (today) but very cold Las Vegas for the CES show this week.

Gator 99 -- Jax Beach area, Sony Tivo and 2 Hughes receivers. When I attach an OTA antenna to the TV I get the same results. Something changed because these channels always had excellent picture quality. I provided this information because there were 2 posts recently in reference to poor PQ on these 2 channels.

Add me to the list, I have been getting those momentary blackouts as well.

I also have the blackouts lasting 1-2 seconds on WAWS through the Comcast 6412 box. Repeats every 10-15 minutes.

mattq - what model numbers for those receivers??

The Tivo is obviously not HD compatible, since I believe only Hughes makes a HD-Tivo, but what about the 2 Hughes receivers? are they E-86s or HTLHD - I think those are the only two HD Directv recievers made (if not someone chime in?)

Also what TV make/model and how are you connecting your receivers (Component/DVI/HDMI/Composit/S-Video etc.) ?

I just finished watching a recording of Veronica Mars, recorded very late Monday or Tuesday night on my Comcast 6208 PVR from the WASW digital channel (but SD).

It had the blackouts every few minutes, lasting a second or so.

- Tom

Jeff -- Sorry for the confusion. My issue is with SD not HD. I posted because I noticed there were 2 other complaints over the last couple of weeks and they did not look like HD issues in the post. I am in the process of getting an HD television as we speak.

Sorry mattq, I was wondering if this was a HD or SD issue? Anyway, I am not sure what your issues are, I still don't see any quality problems on my SD sets with either my Tivo (Hughes DVR) or regualr D* recievers.

I don't know what to tell you. -- I don't remember seeing anyone else complain the last couple of weeks, but I have been pretty busy and might have forgot about it??

Oh, and Congrats when you get your HD set - there are a ton of good viewing options in Jax OTA/Comcast and also on the other providers.

I watched both of these programs last night in HD via the CBS satellite feed out of New York. The sound was outstanding! No problems at all and clearly multi-channeled.

Sounds like this was a local-only problem...

Probably. It sounded like the voices were in an echo chamber. Very hard to understand. I switched over to the D* SD broadcast...the sound was normal, but yuck on the picture. I switched back to the HD OTA and put up with the bizzare sound.

I had the sound problems too on 47-1, on both CSI yesterday and 60 minutes Wednesday. It wasn't for the entire show, it was very annoying.

Peter..I agree..SD picture was very poor...This has been the standard with the SD signal for a while.

Problems again tonight in Joan of Arcadia and JAG. Again, like an echo chamber on HD...no problem with sound on SD...but SD picture...ick.

Anyone have intermittent problems with PBS HD via Comcast? It will lose signal then be fine and repeat. It doesn't do it every night, but at least twice a week.

I am in the process of purchasing a new HDTV which has an HDMI input and was wondering what type of video output I should expect with the Comcast HD STB when I get it ? Thanks in advance for your response(s).

Probably DVI at best. DBS providers are just now getting products with HDMI and MSO's seem to get the gear a little later. You'll probably want to purchase a DVI to HDMI cable, if you indeed choose to utilize your TV's single HDMI port for this purpose.

My Moto box from TimeWarner has DVI, but the current firmware has it disabled, so I'm forced to use component. How lame is that?

It will have both component and DVI. My experience, and I think the majority of others from what I have read, is that the Moto boxes actually give a beter PQ with component. Counterintuitive, I know.

Do we have any comcast techs on the board here? I would like to know when you are planning on going digital with the analogs? I have heard that in some other markets such as Minneapolis, MN that many users have noticed the analogs 1-99 are looking much better. I wish ours would and soon.

Thanks

By the way, I guess I read back a few pages ago that WETV-DT was having audio issues? Was it the echo thing?

Man that is annoying - Jerry what is up with that? - it was real bad last night on Still Standing and Listen UP, mostly on Still Standing.

I have the same issue (Hughes e86)....if I tune another station for a while, then come back to 47, it seems the echo goes away. This doesn't happen on any other station.

Just purchased a Toshiba 46 DLP and I using Comcast for the HD signal. From what I understand is FOX 30 broadcasts in 720P and my set is capable of 1080i and 480. Is this the reason that the picture quality is not as sharp as WTEV 47 for example?...Thanks Matt Q.

Mattq, that should not really matter. Is your comcast box to 1080i output? I have a Panasonic 50" Plasma and I have the box set to 1080i and the Fox picture looks fine. Your set should scale it to its native resolution.

Thanks for the information I appreciate it. I will check my settings. I do notice the FOX logo on the right hand bottom of screen is cut off.