Roanoke, VA / Bluefield, WV - HDTV - Page 6

That's not exactly true. I'm the computer tech. at The News & Advance. Channel 10 does not own us, however we are owned by the same parent company- Media General. I just wish I could pick up WSLS's signal. I am in the Boonsboro- Trents Ferry area and I can't receive them or Fox at all. I know in talking to some of their engeneers when they were at The News & Advance setting up TV equipment that they do have plans to increase their power output but I don't know when.

Brandon

BrandonH,

I don't know what your antenna setup or line of sight issues are, but as I've posted before, I'm in the Boonsboro area and I get WSLS with a Winegard PR-9032 AND a Winegard 29dB pre-amp (mounted in my attic). It's achievable from our area with the right equipment.

The short answer is no, I haven't seen any interference between those two Channel 3's -- but only because I'm out of range of Roanoke. I get nothing on 3-DT with the antenna pointed southwest, and a strong analog signal on WHSV-3 Harrisonburg with the antenna pointed northeast.

I should also back up and explain that I'm interested in the Roanoke market mainly as a visitor. I have relatives in Franklin and Montgomery counties I visit often, and -- as it turns out -- I'm the visiting antenna expert. (They're well out of range of cable, in the country.)

Having ties to the area, I'd love to get signals out of Roanoke, and it may be that a future antenna upgrade accomplishes that. I'm not optimistic, as analog WDBJ-7 is very weak on my current setup.

Or, another way to look at it: I don't think WDBJ-7 will lose many viewers at all when the new CBS affiliate WCVL-Charlottesville starts on Channel 19 this August -- so few people up this way can get 7 to begin with.

Best regards to all,

willie

If WGPX-DT stays on 14 or goes back to 16 and WBRA-DT moves to 15, you will not have anymore trouble than we have here in the Triad with WXII-DT on 31, WUNL-DT on 32 or WUPN-DT on 33. All three live nicely together because they are all the same type station. You are thinking in the digital/analog world and yes, you would have some problems, but once everyone is digital only, that problem goes away.

What is happening is that both digital and analog are AM signals and analog uses the upper half of that signal and digital uses the lower half. With analog receivers looking at the upper half a digital station on the next channel on the lower half, you will have receive interference problems. When everyone gets on the same half, that problem goes away. Also digital transmit filtering is MUCH more tighter than analog every has been and that is how the FCC has been able to put stations in the same market on first adjacent channels in digital, when they would NEVER do that for analog.

It will not be that bad.

Watch closely.

WBRA-DT moves from channel 3 back to channel 15 and WBRA-TV shuts down. WGPX-DT is either 14 or 16 and WGPX-TV shuts down. How is that co-channel interference? At worst it is FIRST ADJACENCY not CO-CHANNEL interference. The only time it can be co-channel is if both stations are on the same channel.

You yourself has said that first adjency digital stations can live side by side, so I still do not see what you are complaining about if both stations are digital.

Foxeng,
You really need to start reading the posts before you go replying. At no time did Trip even mention WGPX in his latest post, yet you some how pull this station back into the conversation. If you would take your own advice and "watch closely" what Trip is worried about is:

WBRA goes back to 15.
WRPX is on 15.
Boom.

He's concerned because he's in an area where there might be overlap. hence, the co-channel interference remark.

Well sorry if I p*ssed some of you off.

To be quite honest, if everyone moves back to their analog channels for digital, then 95% of his problems should be solved. I can tell you that stations look at people who count toward ratings and not people who might be watching. I don't know if Charlotte Co is in the Roanoke/Lynchburg market, but if it isn't, the stations in that market will not care if he gets interference from WNCN or WFXR and that is the truth. His viewing habits (or his families) will not effect those stations ratings and to be quite honest, those stations will not care about his viewing habits and that is the truth too.

I will now leave and let the "commonwealth" fend for itself.

Foxeng,
No one was upset (I don't think), I certainly wasn't, and I meant no offense in my post. I was just trying to point out what Trip was really getting at. Thanks for the information about markets not caring though, as I find that fascinating.

foxeng,

Your insight is always welcome here.

As great a guy as Bob Lee at WDBJ is in trying to be sure everyone has a great HD experience, when it comes down to brass tacks, he doesn't care if I (me personally who lives in Greensboro, NC) can see WDBJ-DT or not since I do not live in his market. My watching his station for EVERY CBS show will not help his ratings no matter how much he may want to provide me with a signal (and it is a VERY NICE signal here too!). That is the broadcasting biz and I don't harbor ill will toward him or WDBJ or any station for that matter. I have had people in surrounding markets do everything they could to get me to waiver them for LIL on satellite for my station because they liked our news or our graphics or we carried some show the FOX in their market didn't, what ever. As much I wanted to say yes, I couldn't. And I would WANT to. It didn't help us at all, and it would cause more problems with D*, FOX, the other FOX affiliate I was undercutting.

That is the crux of the matter. When every station has to make that decision on which channel to give back, market coverage will be one important factor, not only where the signal goes, but interference, possible future interference, operational costs, maintenance costs, the list is as long as your arm. That is why I say most stations will go back to their analog channels, if it works better than their digital assignment. I also know some stations will not for various reasons too, such as cost already spent, out of core analog assignment, low VHF assignment, better antenna location, better coverage, again that list is as long as your arm. I hear WFMY is going to stay on channel 51 and not go back to channel 2. I would like to go back to channel 8 from 35, WXLV and WUPN both have better coverage on their analogs than digitals. I would suspect they will go back, but I haven't heard.

You may not like it, but that is the reality of the situation. and every station is different, please remember that. OTA broadcasting is a business first and foremost and decisions are based on that. If they are not, the station goes out of business and dark.

Will any of our local stations do the 6 o'clock news in HD ?

That is going to take a lot of money - for HD camera. Not to mention that would be studio only. Getting HD cameras in the field is a whole different matter.

That and the anchors are going to have to get a lot better looking (just kidding about that part).

Also the sets have to be HD ready. I went on the NBC tour in NY a couple years ago. It was really neat when they talked about HD and what had to be done to the studios to make the HD ready. An example: The Dateline NBC set has a black floor with speckles of paint all over it. On air it looks like marble. The set also used Duct Tape to resemble aluminum on-air. In HD the set would look like junk. At the time the only set that was HD ready was the NBC Nightly News Set.

I think it is going to be a long time before you see any local HD content.

WRAL does their news in HD. They spent multi millions of dollars to convert the studios, microwave trucks, sat trucks, editing equipment, cameras, new set that didn't look like a piece of plywood with some paint thrown on it (imagine the sets you used in high school or college plays and then subtract it by about 10) the whole ball of wax. The figure I heard was 10 million dollars. That is a hard number for any station to swallow. None of the New York or LA stations do HD news. Some of the smaller markets like Seattle has one station with studio HD cameras and some field cameras, but much of it is still SD. I think the last number I head of stations doing ANY kind of HD news was less than 10 nationwide and only 2 doing full blown HD and non of those stations in top 10 markets.

Adelphia update for Martinsville:

Still showing WSLS-DT, WSET-DT, PBS (WVPT (Stauton), not WBRA), HBO-HD, Showtime-HD.

Was showing WDBJ-DT, but WDBJ-DT retransmission authorization was revoked for a lot of issues, including stripping out PSIP info. (I get WDBJ-DT beautifully OTA)

PBS disappeared for 1-2 days, but then reappeared.

STB was not showing programming info for WDBJ-DT, WSLS-DT, or PBS-HD.

Is showing it for WSET-HD (although apparently retransmission of WSET-HD has not been authorized), HBO-HD, and Showtime HD,

Reported elsewhere that Adelphia and ESPN have reached agreement over transmission of ESPN-HD.

Boy, I really hope they can get WDBJ-DT back on Adelphia. It matters to some of us, because of mountains. I cannot get "7" or "10" of Roanoke bec. of mts. despite the fact that I am 2 blocks away from the Roanoke Co. line (in Botetourt).

The local office says they are in "negotiations."

Good grief, rules and agreements keep me from CBS-HD from satellite, and now from cable. CBS has some of my favorite programs ... but the killer is, it gets turned off JUST IN TIME FOR NCAA basketball tournament!!

Id this the first game of the series in HD? TitanTV doesn't even list this one as a HD game? Anyway, it looks great in Blacksburg.

Has anyone noticed the streaks in the score brackets? I don't know if it my system or the software CBS is using for the overlay.

The current guide doesn't show the Masters on Thursday and Friday afternoon for WDBJ. I thought the HDTV feed was normally picked up in the first two rounds. Anyone know if WDBJ will be doing the same this year? I'm getting one of the first HDTivo's on Wednesday or Thursday and really want to see all four rounds of this year's Masters in HDTV.

Here is an update on some special HDTV programming that will not be
available to analog viewers:
WDBJ-DT will feature live coverage of The Masters on 7.1 only this
Thursday
and Friday. Both HD broadcasts will run 4-6:30 p.m.
Then on Saturday, look for Star Trek in HD on 7.1 at 2:00 p.m. This
will be
our most recent attempt to screen one of the Paramount HD features we
have
discussed in the past. Regular HD coverage of Saturday's round of The
Masters will follow at 4:30. Of course, it will be simulcast on analog
7.0.
Bob Lee

Cox cable to have PBS HD on April 15 (channel 704) per Cox web site. Any good HD shows on PBS?

The PBS HD channel does have some neat stuff sometimes. Their problem has been they don't have enough bandwidth running to it and it pixelates very badly (at least last time I watched).

I'm new to this thread but thought I'd contribute. PBS does have some pretty good programming. If I can figure it out, I'll attach their HD programming schedule. Ron Smith, the engineer at BRPTV, has indicated that with early adoption has come plenty of problems including vendor mis-programmed equipment and an Internet virus on one of their media servers. I personally have not noticed any pixelation in the HD stream. I do, however, get intermittent dropped frames. This is strange because their OTA signal, which I depend on, is the strongest in the region. I don't know if anyone has contacted Ron, regarding this forum, but it would be nice to have him contribute.

 

april04.zip 105.0703125k . file

PBS to me is the ideal opportunity when it comes to multi-casting. They just need to get the ability to add/drop channels on demand. I would think in the daytime multicasting gives PBS tremendous capabilities as far as providing learning resources to parents and teachers.

Also for any parent out there, switching to DirecTV I get PBS Kids. I could not move back to cable without this channel as my 3 year old when he does watch TV watches this channel almost exclusively. Putting this up on a subchannel would be a real service as well to parents.

Then if they could drop back from maybe 5 channels during the day to 3 at prime time for primary HD programming. As channel 7 has shown, with a good encore HD can be multiplexed with a couple SD channels and still have a fairly good picture quality.

PBS doesn't have the sports issues that CBS has so I don't see any problem with permanent multicasts. I actually like the WDBJ multicasts - just not during live events where bandwidth is pushed to the extreme. In my opinion, the majority of CBS and and probably all PBS filmed HD material doesn't need the full bandwidth. Just right now the PBS encoder is not getting the proper amount of bandwidth to their HD subchannel.

Since my SO won't let me put up an antenna bigger enough to get WBRA on VHF 3, I acan only speak of the WVPT OTA single currently being fed by Adelphia in Martinsville. There is a promo that I've seen where a large flock of birds are moving cross field, requiring the camera to move to stay with them. This results in a lot of pixelation, but I don't know if it's related to using 1080i or overcompression.