Roanoke, VA / Bluefield, WV - HDTV - Page 99

My guess on CSI:NY - We got two of the 5 main tracks, maybe left right, likely left right surround, decoded into a two channel stereo stream. I turned on closed captions to watch it, but it was a little strange.

That's a bit harsh. It's easy to sit there and armchair about something that you had absolutely nothing to do with bringing to a reality. Getting a digital/HD signal took a ton of work and money on their part and I am appreciative of what I have seen so far.
So what if they choose to roll out their local completely HD, that is their choice, just like it is your choice and mine to tune in to the competition if we so choose.
I know the guys from 7 write here frequently to ask and answer questions and to just chat at times, I don't see anybody from 10 here doing the same.
I think you are really just cooked about not getting your ball game in HD. There will be others...stop whining.

Yes, FINALLY - someone noticed! All those cables I ran were treated with 1080P "Progressive Scan Compensation Wax". Walla!

HEH! Sorry, after my last 2 weeks, I just couldn't resist!

Alan

Here is a no B.S. answer to the Duke/UVa Game. WDBJ was not the ONLY station to be left out of HD land.

Raycom did last year start HD transmissions of ACC BB. We carried them.
This year. Raycom is/was improving HD. There were 2 sessions of "test" time with an uplink transmitted so all affiliates were able to receive HD transmissions. WDBJ was fine on both. We are fine on the first broadcast.
The Duke/UVa game had issues, not caused by WDBJ or any OTHER Raycom affil. The uplink truck which was contracted by Raycom had an encoder that was NOT SET UP to the test parameters for the Raycom test. Some stations got it, some got audio but no video, some LIKE US, nothing.

*Trust me on this* We lit up Raycom's HIND end.

This was NOT WDBJ, and for all programming matters, the game SHOULD have been in HD.

I apologize for all of you BB fans. This was Raycom's problem == and then it wasn't really Raycom's problem, it was the UPLINK provider contracted by Raycom that supplied something as simple as a different "spec'd" encoder specified by the contract.

It was our fault, but not on purpose.

I am going to bed. If you all want to know - CALL me at the station.

It was a technical oversight. After I read the problem, it was sorta one of those uh DUH moments.!

Yes, it was us, yes I know why, and it involves HD expansion.

Thanks
Alan


344-7000

Alan,

Most of us appreciate the effort and hard work you put into bringing us HD on WDBJ!!!!

Please dont fret over a whiner or two. They'll always be there!!

Thank you,
fred

I live in Yorktown, VA, but I had a similar situation:
I recently bought a Pana EZ17 and the first scheduled recordings were both L&Os this past Wednesday night. The exact same thing as you described with CSI:NY occurred with my shows...music, background sounds, but no dialogue. I posted in my local forum, wondering whether the problem was with my new recorder, the cable company(my first recordings on unscrambled QAM local NBC-HD affiliate), or the affiliate itself. One reply said that it sounded like there was a problem with the audio switcher and that my center channel(where dialogue generally resides) was missing. He said that problem would be the local affiliate's. There was some other technical jargon about 5.1 converting to 2.0, but I'm an audiophilie Luddite.

Alan, I live outside your station's viewing area, but experienced a similar problem recently with a recording of L&O. The engineers at my local NBC affiliate have remained mum...I would appreciate it if you could take a moment and explain to the group(or at least PM me) how this happens. I'm not nitpicking or fussing...just curious as to the technology and growing pains involved with the conversion to DT and HD. Someone theorized in my local forum that the problem was with an audio switcher at the station. I'm wondering if there's an audio setting on my EZ17 DVD recorder that could compensate for this if it occurs again.

Just wondering as a person living in a so called fringe area, 75 miles SE of Roanoke, if my picture will improve when all stations go to digital broadcast and I change TVs to digital?

I'd like to know what "HD expansion" is. My only guess is that the compressed digital signal from NY (or wherever) is uncompressed and processed locally prior to being recompressed into the OTA signal.

In theory, stations are replacing their analog signals with digital signals of equivalent coverage. In practice some may be fudging that a bit to reduce power costs, relying on cable & satellite distribution. An analog signal will just get weaker and weaker as you go farther from the broadcast antenna. A digital signal will be perfect for long distance and then drop to unuseable over a relatively short distance, somewhat dependent on atmospheric conditions. Since we essentially have double the number of transmitters during the transition, some digital tranmsitters are broadcasting with somewhat reduced power during the transition to avoid interference. Some stations will actually change frequency when they complete their transition to digital. Because of all of these, its hard to say what you will be able to get

WDBJDT is very strong all the way down to Greensboro, so you should get them easily (plus or minus any directional broadcast antenna issues). http://antennaweb.org says South Boston won't be able to get any digital stations. However, if you go there and plug in your exact address you may get better results. There is another site that supposedly gives more accurate results, but I don't remember what it is.

You don't have to buy a digital TV. You can get a converter. You can also get coupons from the feds for $40 towards a converter box.

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OK, I was way to tired to type last night. Here you go.

The show that aired later with the audio problems was our fault - it was on oversite that after the fact we said, duh.

Our plant has 2 worlds - the SD world ( in which we run SDI w/ embedded audio - that is the audio is contained with the video and using a single coax, we can send video and audio signals to things like tape machines and servers) and the HD world.

We have an 128x128 SD router. That is 128 inputs that can be mapped to any of the 128 outputs. This is SDI w/ embedded audio.

The HD world we started with a 16x16 router - however it is actually 2 routers. A 16x16 video router and a 16x16 audio (AES - digital audio) router. This side of the plant is NOT using embedded audio. So to the tape machines, say to record CBS in 5.1 we need a video cable and 3 audio wires (AES audio is in pairs - cable 1 - ch 1/2 cable 2 - ch 3/4 cable 3 ch 5/6).

Up until the first of Dec. hd record and playback were done by 2 HD tape machines we have. The first of December we added to our on-air HD server by doubling the drive storage and adding HD servers.

These servers can take HD w/ embedded audio ( which we don't run - YET )
or HD with AES audio ( which is the way the plant is wired currently).
However, unlike the tape machines with can handle 8 AES pairs, the server only handles 2 pairs. Audio 1 - ch1/2 Audio 2 Ch 3/4.

Hence the oversight. We said now that we have the server, we will just record the show and playback off the server.

Well for 5.1 audio, I need audio 1/2 3/4 5/6. I can only input 1/2 3/4.
5/6 get left out and that is where the Center mix is (5) and LFE (6).

OOPS. WE just weren't thinking. The gear came in this week to allow me to replace my router to a much larger one and go embedded audio on HD shortly.

I hope this makes sense!

Alan

Reminds me of that old Maine Yankee trying to give directions. Finally he just gives up and says "You can't get there from here."

Perhaps wdbjalan can answer this one...why did Channel 7 pull out during the PLAYOFF of the Pebble Beach golf tournament on Sunday? If it is a network thing, they usually send it to The Golf Channel...but guess what...my dad has the golf in his local CBS channel. First we get hosed from the Duke-Carolina HD (not DBJ's fault)...and now some of the best golf in HD there is...we din't even get to see the end of the tournament.

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News has the option to interrupt programming in emergency situations.
Roanoke City issued a civil emegency yesterday. Along with the fires and the wind conditions they took the air.

Hey Trip,
A lot of us have read your posts for several years now and have a good idea of what your interests are but would you mind telling us what your planned major will be?

Go for it! We wish you much success.

Thanks so much...a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Has anyone received their coupons for the Set Top receiver/s yet? Was just wondering, because I haven't seen mine.

Thanks

The UVa/UNC game looked great last night, except for the score. Looks like Raycom got it right this time and WDBJ or course followed through. Thanks.

Maybe next time you guys could help just a little bit with the outcome of you sports broadcasts

Was there any pixelization mush during fast motion?

Yes, there was some pixelation dust when the camera panned quickly and also around moving players. It was quite evident on my 46" LCD on close view, but less evident if viewed from more than 6 feet away. The following program, Jericho, was broadcast in standard def, and although the picture wasn't so sharp, I didn't see the same pixelation.

I was viewing via Jet Broadband in Radford on the unscrambled QAM channel.

I'm trying to get an idea if Raycom is sending out a crappy HD signal or our local station (WTVZ/MNT) is doing a poor job with the 1080i feed...

Thanks WDBJ and Raycom. Game looked great last night! If you could have only
squeezed out one more HD basket for UVA, it would have been nearly perfect...

Hokie...

Websites are ready to take orders... SolidSignal.com. A nice looking box. I ordered four coupons (2 in my name and 2 with my parent's name)...