Austin, TX - HDTV - Page 214

Mine is set to start 5 minutes early and it still missed the start of a few shows.

Do people actually watch sitcoms any more??

I got one (samsung 3270) at your recommendation. Love the speedup,
but my recordings don't show up in the "list" until like 8 hours after it's
done recording! I have had it for 2 days now. If I reboot when it's not
recording, everything magically shows up in the list.

Have you seen this problem?

Also, where in the menus is the setting to use last channel when powering
on??

I had the EXACT same problem. Funny part is when I called TWC, they acted like they had never heard of that issue which cannot be the case unless you and I are the only two who had it. I swapped it out and the new one seems to work correctly. The "last channel" power on is in the settings menu, but can't remember which sub menu, but it's there.

Thanks, maybe I got your old one???

I could be wrong, but without cablecards, I don't think you can get anything that isn't OTA. Even with cablecards, without a Tuning Adapter there aren't too many HD channels other than OTA, so check that the software for the tuners you're looking at will work with one.

Without a cable card you can get KBVO that you can't get via OTA unless the tower is in your backyard.

New subchannel time, folks.

KNVA has fired up 54.2. Right now, it's a simulcast. But before long, it will be "The Cool TV", a music channel.

www.thecooltv.com

UPDATE.... The Cool TV is scheduled to launch on 54.2 October 25th.

The CRAP TV...yea! I would have rather them spent the money improving the signal on KBVO so that people that live further than 2 feet from the tower could pick it up. Come on...even MTV doesn't play music anymore.

Noooooooo! That was the best looking station in town. Full 1080i and no subchannels. Sigh.

Wow. Is that really the best they can do with a subchannel? At least it's not Spanish, I guess. We lose RTN and get Spanish subchannels and this. Yay.

If the subchannel content is gonna suck, I'd rather save the bandwidth for the main HD channel.

Has anyone here SEEN CoolTV? I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread and instant Tang, but it's hardly fair to say it "sucks" until we've seen it.

Gawdalmighty, forgive me for bringing news here.

It sounds like a 1980's MTV. Am I totally wrong? How did that business plan work out during the 2000's? Why waste money on this when most of the area can't even pick up a more mainstream station (KBVO)?

Perhaps KBVO is already at maximum ERP. I don't know that, I'm just speculating. Given that it's, IIRC, on Time Warner,and Direct, maybe LIN figures it's got enough of the market covered. What is the off-air only market now, less than 10%?

It's not at full strength. They had told me that they were applying for more power and that would be done by May...guess what....unless the tower is part of your backyard, no go. LIN is probably the worst station management in the area. I feel sorry for some of my friends that work for them.

It's painfully obvious you have no friends that work for KTBC.

At any rate, that's good news that a power increase for KBVO is in the offing. We have to remember that LIN has a LOT of projects in Austin cooking right now. I'm no apologist for them (disclaimer: I am a former employee, from LONG ago), but for the moment folks are just going to have to be happy with the TWC or DirecTV feeds.

However, the amount of promotion on KXAN for KBVO would certainly indicate that the long range plan is for that station to be much more than just one more LP.

If they are willing to operate six analog repeaters of KNVA with little or no sound (KHPB-CA 45 Bastrop, KHPG-CA 31 Giddings, KHPL-CA 40 La Grange, KHPM-CA 40 San Marcos, KHPX-CA 28 Georgetown, KHPZ-CA 15 Round Rock)

what's one measly digital subchannel?

They quit KTBC back in the late 1990's to go to KXAN...so....

I guess I can't complain that much, after all, I have received a check from them (LIN TV) for some voice over work a few years back that I did for a local commercial

For some reason, I can't find the below message to reply to, but I'll repost it here anyway:


FWIW, I have 36 right now with no problem, had them last night as well. I'm at Steck & MoPac in north central Austin.

Downtown (right now) I'm showing lower signal level than normal on KXAN
(50%), but enough for picture with no microblocking. KXAN usually is in the 70% range.

My USB HD tuner threshold for picture lock is around 40-45% signal. I can't receive KNVA and never have been able to downtown, but pick them up ok at home.

Back to KXAN...they had some major transmitter problems a couple of weeks ago and were off the air for better part of two days. Could be they never got back to full power (waiting on parts, perhaps)?

KXAN 50%
KLRU 44%
KTBC 73%
KVUE 69%

FWIW, KXAN is and has been at full power for the past few days, at least.

Thanks for the update. When they were off the air for almost two days, I knew it must have been a major problem with their transmission plant.

I have a slightly different question. I'm ditching the TWC DVR in favor of a HTPC. Currently I'm recording digital HD off of TWC's feed (mainly because antenna setup is not ideal in my location). If I just go with basic cable, will I still be able to pick up the OTA HD feeds that TWC carries? I've read mixed stories about TWC blocking these unless you have a digital cable package.

I finally completed the Direct TV signup.

I tried twice before at Sams and Frys. Each time, while the sales rep made the signup phone call, the initial price became higher than what the person initially told me. So, I walked away each time, even though at that point I had 20 minutes 'invested' into the signup. I don't think a sales person should be rewarded for being incorrect or misleading.

However, yesterday evening I was at Best Buy at the Arboretum, and this didn't happen. Plus the Best Buy guy (Alex?) didn't seem like a slimy sales person.

My Direct TV installation happens next week. Do you have any advice for:
- What I should do to prepare for the installer?
- What I should do to help things go well while installer is installing?

My config is:

1) Downstairs: HD TV #1 with HD DVR
2) Upstairs: HD TV #2 with HD DVR

and he said they would "network together the DVRs" such that I could watch a recorded program on either HD DVR from either upstairs or downstairs. Sales guy said the installer would run the cable.

First of all, if you have any friends that have DirecTV you might want to check into the referral program, both of you could save $10/month for 10 months ($100 each), see http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/referr...questid=170627 .

What can you do ahead of time, have the area where you want to connect the receivers at cleaned up a bit so they can work there. You'll also need to make sure that there is an additional power outlet for the receiver plus one additional one for the power inserter that powers the dish's SWiMLNB.

You should also make sure that what used to be called the Internet Connection Kit (ICK) now called the Cinema Connection Kit is included in the order. This interconnects the coax network that DirecTV uses to your router for internet access. This allows for DirecTV on Demand, TVApps, MediaShare and DirecTV2PC plus any new internet based features/functions DirecTV is working on.

The standard install will be to run the coax cable the quickest/easiest way, if you want to do any wall fishing that would be an extra installation charge. Depending on what cable you have installed now they might reuse it.

You might also want to check out http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=151213 and review some of the documents linked there like the undocumented hints/tips PDF.

Enjoy!

rad, thanks so much!


Wow, I can't imagine what a "standard install" would be -- having the wire running down the stairs? The only way to run it would be via the walls I'd think.

The installer can run the cable along the outside of the house, then drill a hole for the cable where the TV is located. If you don't want that, and you don't already have coax outlets where your TVs are located, you might have to pay more for wall-fishing...

FWIW, I have had DirecTV installed 4 times at 4 different houses, plus had a number of customers that had it installed. In exactly 0 of these cases did the DirecTV installer do what they were supposed to do first time out. It was always either: "Your roof is too steep", "Our records show SD STBs, but you're saying you told them HD STBs", "We didn't bring all the right equipment", or some other lame excuse. I think their main subcontractor (Martec or something like that) must get paid by the truck roll rather than by the completed install.

So, Green Thumb, word of advice: don't schedule a football-watching party the night of the install. Just saying, and as always, YMMV...

It appears you had the pleasure of dealing with Mastec. I've had three experiences with them myself, all bad.

Since I moved to Austin 6/2006 my Mastec experiences have been:

- Movers install, got the truck is broke call, will be two hours late. Finally after 6 hours past appointment time I cancelled and reschedule. The second appointment went as expected, no problems.

- HR DVR replacement, service call was for between 8 and noon, after a number of running late and I'll be there in an hour he didn't show up until 8PM.

- Dish retweek after high winds, showed up on time, no problems.

- Connected Home/Whole Home DVR install. Installer does the prearrival call, ask him if he has a SWiM16 since I had 11 tuners, nope but you don't need one, two SWiM8's will work just fine with Whole Home DVR. After a number of phone calls to supervisors and educating them on how whole home works got a reschedule for a week later. Second attempt tech knew what needed to be done but still had to wait for someone to go get a SWiM16 and bring it to them.

It's beautiful when bad service is the expected norm ;-)