Austin, TX - HDTV - Page 24

Descolada,

I see your point and I know where you are coming from. I did try to resist posting the (-) comment. But you get to the point where you cant resist. This forum is getting to be absolutely useless to anyone but TW people. And sure its totally valid to discuss TW, as it is OTA or D*. BUT, that being said, do you see anyone rambling on and on about the D* remote or STB?? I dont. Like I said, I understand your point but damn I just feel that a TW Austin thread would be an excellent place to talk about the circuit design and the plastic coating the remote control is made of.

That's really funny since it seemed to me that there were about three straight pages of Silver Sensor discussion which, since I happen to be a TW HD customer, are of zero use to me...

Not attacking or trying to start a flame war, but your comment struck me as quite ironic.

As an Austinite who is interested in HD I want to hear it all. Breaking it into
three threads for say OTA, satellite, and cable would mean I would have to
read three threads to get the latest info on each. I get OTA HD, TW HD, and
may someday get satellite HD so being informed in all three areas about whats available in Austin is exactly what I want and exactly what this thread should be about... LOCAL HDTV INFO!

And how is it ironic? Sure people will post things in a long thread from time to time but w/ the TW stuff it just goes on and on every single day.

No, not 3 threads, this thread plus the "TW how to work the buggy remote control and STB thread".


Yea thats what I want the latest info on the buttons on the TW new remote control.

Don't forget the complaints about the silk screen color on the TW remote, oh yeah, and the backlight color, the keys should glow red, not green, and wouldn't this box be better if it were silver... and on... and on.... and on....

What you don't see here is all the various flavors of DirecTV, Voom, or DsihHD set top boxes and their various outputs and software revisions that make them work. Which you see plenty of with Time Warner's junk (my opinion). If it was just discussion about programming options or picture quality that would be different, but as previously mentioned 9 out of 10 times it's the frigging hardware issues with them! On and on, ad nauseum. That's what the rest of us object to I beleive.

I noticed the same thing about the sound, plus it was slightly out of sync. I also saw some pixelation when there was a lot of movement. I have certainly seen much worse, though. Overall it was a decent presentation. Hopefully it will get better and they can work some of the kinks out as the playoffs progress.

6

bonoc,

I can certainly understand the occasional frustration when the thread appears to be taken over by TW discussions... but SCWells72 also had a point regarding the mulitude of Silver Sensor posts all in a row. I guess what I'm getting at is, try to see it from the other side. I agree that D* discussion doesn't have much of a place here, mostly because I would consider this national and not local - and as you mentioned, it doesn't come up.

Your points regarding specific features of the TW boxes themselves are well taken. For example, there is a thread specific to the SA 8000HD box in the hardware forum, and I agree that this would be the best place to address many of the questions specific to the box. But many people are really just looking for help, and might not know where to go - maybe a gentle reminder that better results might be received if a particular question was asked in the hardware forum might be appropriate.

By the way, here's a link to that thread in case anyone is interested - the answers to many questions about the 8000HD can be found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=1

So again, I do understand your frustration, and I appreciate your honest reply. I guess what I'm getting at is whether it's OTA or TW, it's all about the Austin info - and as Wayne pointed out, many people like to get the full view in one place rather than trying to hunt around for different information in different threads.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my rant... time to go back under my rock for a little while!

Descolada

Thanks for the link to the hardware forum...I have been lurking around on the forums for some time and just came across the local area and didn't even know there was a dedicated link to the 8000HD...So, I guess I am validating your post and appreciate the information. The Austin thread is great and I like reading about all the different solutions that people are using here in Austin. I might switch from TW someday and I would like the feed back from others before I leap. I feel this is the prefect thread to find out what's what in HD in Austin...

The Worm-

Just a few miles south of you in San Antonio TWC just opened up Ch 127 with TNT in HD. Guess I will just have to watch the Lakers one more time. PQ looks pretty good and te sound seems to be 5.1 !

KTBC is Fox O&O, I believe, so you shouldn't need a waiver to get Fox HD off of DirecTV.

In Georgetown, though, I am also listed as receiving a Fox station from Temple, and I would need a waiver for them.

So I figure my only hope is that KTBC actually does bump up their power.

Hi Chris,
Never thought of that!
Thanks
PS: Same way, I'm lovin' my free HD East Coast CBS feed from D*. There's no time lag on network stuff, but the NYC local nightly news is a hoot. Now if they'll just turn Letterman's HD on, maybe I'll get a time-slip on him too.
A.

This time is probably going to be the time we remember best -- when HD is new, fun, and exciting. There will become a time in the not-so-distant future when HD is everywhere and the discussion of HD recorders, antennas, whatever will be ho-hum.

I envy those post-war people in the late 40's when commercial TV first became available. It must have been really, really, fun.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm still enjoying it but remember as a kid in NYC at the '39 World's Fair the early TV transmission. Was not impressed as much as I was with the tours of the future cities! Did Austin or SanAntoio even have a station in the late '40's? Don't think that LBJ ranch got electricity until the '50's...feel lucky to even see HDTV on a daily basis

Not sure about SA, but IIRC KTBC signed on here in Austin Thanksgiving day of 1952...

...and yes, the first program was the A&M game!


But folks...I really, really wouldn't look for any improvements in signal strength from KTBC any time soon. That HD antenna is sticking off the side of that old tower as an afterthought. Until Fox corporate ponys up the bucks for a new stick...I get the feeling that what we see is what we've got.

Anyone notice a problem w/gray bars after all the firmware upgrades? On 4x3 programming, the gray bars on left and right are a slightly lighter shade of gray. I've primarily noticed this on recorded programs. It is pretty annoying...and I made sure my settings were for "Dark Gray".

I've seen films of those model "utopian" future cities -- absolutely fascinating. A few years ago at Dallas Antique radio convention a brave soul set up a working scanning disc TV and displayed "Felix the Cat" -- was that ever exciting!

we've got it now too

Austin Folks,
I've been trying to e-mail David @KLRU, re: PBS HD on D* and OTA. No joy. Is it my understanding that TWC is getting KLRU HD now? If so, I'm gonna be major PO'd, and ask for my KLRU subscription money back. We've waited quite long enough for these laggards, IMO.
Answers welcome,
AMc

I have not seen a HD signal for KLRU over TW. There are 4 digital channels, but they are all SD every time I look.

Thanks Darthnice,
OK. So I'll keep hass'ling them. But growing Very Tired of their empty, hustling, (i.e.: fundraising), promises of HD.
AMc
PS: I mean, like, I'm hearing wonder stories about HD PBS all over the US! Then why-the-Hell not in Austin, the hi-tech capital of the world?
A.

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you ask for one, you can get a 3250HD that includes firewire outs. I managed to stream and record some HD onto my computer, though the driver is a bit flakey and will bluescreen if you try to do some fairly pedestrian stuff.

This thread has the info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=403695

I think my 3250 has firewire out, do you have to have them enable it or is this something you have to exchange your box for? I could have sworn I saw firewire out on my box but this is one of the first batches they received so I'm sure it's "old"

Hello everyone! Great forum. First time poster here.

Is the NBA finals in 5.1? My receiver says it's receiving 5.1 dolby digital. However, I hear nothing coming out of my center speaker or my two rears. When i switch to a DVD, i can confirm that all of my speakers are working. I checked the web and confirmed that ABC is broadcasting in 5.1 so wondered if KVUE was mucking things up in the OTA transmissions.

I'm not getting audio out of my center or surround speakers during the game. I did notice that they're doing that 5.1 Circle Surround crap and that's never been a good thing.

Hi Guys,

It's my first time posting in the Austin thread even though i subscribe to it, but we need to do something about KVUE.

First of all, the sound issue: it has been documented that the sound is DD 2.0 so - as bjenkins said - they can use their CS processing which AFAIK only Kenwood supports. But they also flag the signal as 5.1 which means that receivers that don't use CS identify it as DD 5.1 but only output through LR. So, BC it's not you it's them.

The solution proposed is to set the receiver to PCM and then use PLII or DTS:NEO6 or whatever one prefers but, in my case, that outputs no sound whatsoever, so it may be my setup or it may be the way it's flagged by our Austin ABC station. You guys can try that and see what happens. I use the 7ch stereo DSP on my Denon and it's way better than the DD 2.0-as-5.1.

The other major issue is the major blurring/macroblocking problems that i'm having with their HD presentation. This issue has been extensively documented in a couple of other threads. I emailed KVUE about it after the first game but the situation was similar last night and i didn't even get a response other than a clearly automated email that they are "looking into my problem". If you are experiencing the same issues maybe we can collectively appeal to them to do something about it.

I have to agree that the ABC presentation blows when compared to the WC Finals on TNT. Their sound was intense. I haven't heard of this Circle Surround thing before; is it just another encoding? Is it a 5.1 system?

CS (predictably now CSII ) is like PLIIx or DTS:NEO6 in that it can reproduce a 6.1/7.1 audio track from a mono, stereo or surround source. In my experience (i used to own a couple of Kenwood receivers in the past) it is nowhere near the quality of the other two. It does have a couple of advantages: it is backwards compatible so a CS-encoded track can be played on any system (unlike say DTS 5.1 which needs to be decoded), and it can carry up to a 6.1 mix on a stereo track taking up less bandwidth; presumably, this is one of the reasons why ABC/ESPN use it.

BTW, I received another generic email from KVUE today thanking me for my concern but saying absolutely nothing of value! I think i'll try to contact their engineer.

Could someone email me the name of a reputable satellite installer in the Austin area? I have a satellite about to fall off the roof due to a poor installation. I have lost my HD feed and I am afraid one more storm and I will be without satellite altogether!

Thanks!