Greenville, SC - HDTV - Page 13

To all interested in OTA HD:
The following new information regarding the proposed new generation of chips for off-air reception was received from Wayne Estabrook of UNCTV: (Very encouraging):

This message below from Mark Schubin who lives in NY City and up til now
has not had much success receiving DTV in his apartment with an indoor
antenna. DTT = Digital Terrestrial Television

I probably told you that I was very impressed with the fifth generation
receiver I saw demonstrated in April at my PBS engineering meeting.

Mark Schubin writes;
20040722 Thundering Thursday Thanks (Mark's Monday Memo)

SPECIAL! DTT in the U.S. Works!

Count me among the believers in the 5th-generation LG/Zenith ATSC receiver!

We just did a test, this morning, in my apartment, and I thought the news
was too important not to release immediately. Present were two senior
research engineers from LG Electronics in Korea, Bob Miller and an
associate from Viacel, and Richard Bogner and an associate. Miller had
arranged for the test in my apartment. The receiver was the LG LST-3100A.

With a simple loop antenna, with NO care in the positioning, we were able
to pull in seven DTT stations reliably. When I say "reliably," I mean not
only that the pictures and sound were okay but that people could move
around the room and I could move the antenna around without causing any
breakup. It WAS possible for me to find an orientation where I could make
it fail, but I really had to try, even on WNYW-DT, which could previously
be received only with the antenna on the floor. That's a big jump from
previously trying to find an orientation (and position) where I could make
it work. For the first time, I could receive signals (six channels) from
an antenna atop my TV, where I normally get analog channels. I received
three channels reliably from New Jersey. We got the same results with the
classic Radio Shack dual bow-tie with reflector, but other (fancier)
antennas did not work as well.

The only channel I have previously received that I could not get this
morning was (which we confirmed with a spectrum analyzer) off the air. Two
of the other channels I could not receive are operating at very low power,
and one has its transmissions beamed away from me.

I now believe that any shmo with reception conditions similar to mine can
simply take the receiver out of the box, connect a cheap loop antenna,
stick it wherever it looks good, and start to receive ATSC signals from
all full-power, full-pattern stations.

There has been a breakthrough! YAY! Congratulations to LG/Zenith! Let the
transition move forward!

For the record, the channels I received were: WCBS-DT, WNBC-DT, WNYW-DT
(which carries WWOR as a subchannel), WABC-DT, WPXN-DT, WNJN-DT, and
WFME-DT.

TTFN,
Mark

To all: Re Sinclair/WLOS

Following a review of the new Zenith/LG receiver, Sinclair had this to say:

"We are pleased to see the progress made by Zenith that will allow
consumers to easily receive free digital television broadcasts in their
homes. Broadcasters and consumers can now look forward to a robust DTV
service delivered over-the-air without having to subscribe to cable or
satellite," said Nat Ostroff, Vice President, New Technology, Sinclair
Broadcast Group.

"Our concerns that poor indoor reception would hinder the DTV
transition have now been addressed," he said. "And this is especially timely because of the FCC-mandated rollout of millions of large-screen HDTV
receivers with integrated over-the-air tuners beginning this summer.

"With indoor reception now more viable, broadcasters need to examine their current transmitting power levels to assure that they deliver an adequate signal inside the home, and consumer electronics manufacturers need to ensure that breakthrough technologies such as this are available in the market," Ostroff said.

Lets hope WLOS personnel are examining their power level.

Re WSPA-DT audio...no, but I will send a note to Ron Peeler after last night's experience. However, the SD audio was not perfect.
Unfortunately, the HD feed out of New York was preempted by Baseball and there was no alternative.

Regarding the WSPA-HD audio, the following has been sent to Ron Peeler:

"Ron, last night's DT audio was really bad and not usable. It has been a long time since we were told to expect better audio from WSPA-HD. Can we have an update as to what to expect?

JWB"

WYFF-DT
No problem here with WYFF--neither last night nor this morning.