Austin, TX - HDTV - Page 209

I called yesterday to inquire about when we are getting new HD-DVRs. The rep said we should now be getting the Samsung 3270. I plan on taking my 8300HDC for a swap as soon as I finish out my recorded shows.

What's the advantages of it?

The new samsung boxes have Navigator/Mystro it pre-installed. The Scientific Atlanta boxes *should* be getting it on 4/1, but I have no information on which specific models if not all will be receiving it.


I don't think they have the DVR's quite yet in the Lobbys, for customer pickup that is.


It's completely different than SARA (What you're used to with an SA box in Austin). The guide is completely different, much better IMO. You can also customize everything a lot more than with SARA.


Also, you can actually search for shows! Something TWC has been WAY behind at in this region.

Right now, KTBC is on about 40% power. They hope to be up to full strength by the end of the weekend IF the weather cooperates and nothing else goes bump. The possibly good news is that this repair MAY improve their signal in those areas of Williamson County where they were weak before, even at 100%. No guarantees, but there is hope.

There is also recording conflict resolution.

xnappo

Well, right now it appears to be 0% power

Supposedly, they also have a 320g hard drive, double the capacity of the current 160 in the SAs.

Which means they are probably on the tower reinstalling the antenna.

KTBC has notified its staff that repairs to the tower are complete and that they are now (finally for sure) at 100% power and coverage.

In other words, what we have right now is what we're gonna get.

Eastern Williamson county....start your scans. And remember, if you last had KTBC before the great upgrade when they were on 51, you may need to scan twice, the first time with NO antenna attached, the second WITH it attached.

Are the "new" samsung boxes more powerful than the SA 8300HD boxes (not the HDC, don't have one of those)

Whoopee!!! I'm at 88% out here in Bastrop county.

Not sure what you mean by more powerful, but they have a better processor.

Yes, and perhaps more importantly they were designed from the ground up to run Tru2Way/OCAP.

xnappo

Not too much of a change here in my location. I was around 70-75% signal strength...right now I'm about 76-82.

Well, that's up five points. Given the digital cliff effect, that could carry the signal another, what, 15-20 miles?

Here's the coverage map for KTBC at 98kw. As most people have found out with DTV (no matter what the station), real world results may vary.

The FCC thinks everyone has an outdoor antenna.

 

KTBC coverage map.pdf 187.6201171875k . file

Well, I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of hope for anyone trying to get digital TV with a pair of rabbit ears 40 miles from the tower!

Is anyone getting KTBC now (especially in Williamson County) who couldn't get it before? Their engineers would really like to know what difference the recent repairs have made and I can pass that info on to them.

I'm in western Williamson (Parmer and 620). The signal is now consistent. I had to delete quite a few broken DVR recordings of "24" and "Idol" over the last couple of weeks.

It's much better now. Please extend my thanks to the engineers and crews that got this fixed.

Searches haven't turned anything relevant up - does anyone have any information about getting BBC America HD on TWC in Austin?

TIA...

I am 24 miles from the tower according to AntennaWeb, and I have not been able to receive KTBC since June 12th. I have rescanned many times with no success. Is there anyone out there that can get KTBC's signal 20-30 miles out with just an indoor antenna?

24 miles out in what direction? Where? A mile or so east or west can make a difference. Are you behind a ridge by any chance? What equipment and what antenna?

KTBC just went down about 5-10 minutes ago. No OTA signal at all.

Yes. I'm over 20 miles out SE from the towers. Have a DB2 and rabbit ears in a window facing west. Signal has to go through several miles of trees and into low area. KTBC was a 86-88 last night. Are you sure your antenna has VHF capabilities? Maybe it's only UHF. You might need to get rabbit ears too.

Intersting...at least, if they did this on purpose, it was during crap programming

Zeesh. Must be the home of the Three Stooges. This station is either snakebit or totally incompetent. My guess is that they tried to do this DTV conversion on the cheap and are now paying for their frugality.

Oh, Gawd.

Let's just say Rupert Murdoch is known for being....frugal...with his O&O stations. I'm sure that the folks there are doing everything they can with what they have.

They have paid dearly for equipment designed by an 'expert' that failed. It's not like there are a zillion companies building this stuff. How is this KTBC's fault?

We're all wrong about KTBC this morning. That was a PLANNED outage, to remove the rest of the construction equipment from the tower. Mid morning Saturday during little viewed or paid programming was apparently the best time to do this.

I guess I was half right