Roanoke, VA / Bluefield, WV - HDTV - Page 24

Someone will still have to make STBs, if only because they'll be needed at some point for those remaining analog sets when everyone makes the switch to digital only!

I believe USDigital/Hisense is still on target for their June 5th gen release. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Thanks for joining us, Alan, and welcome to the group!

And thanks for clearing up this question of mine. It's funny to see you say that, as we have an NBC affil here (Cleveland) that throws on 1) An HD channel, 2) An SD simulcast and 3) A weather radar, and I don't know if they have stat muxing or not. One thing, though...the radar probably takes less than even your weather feed...the thing constantly "redraws" and looks like it's getting the minimum bandwidth.

The only other question - how much above that 14.5 does 7-1 get in HD (on approximate average, I presume)? And maybe this is something Bob can answer...do you guys ever turn OFF the subchannels to maximize HD (i.e. for football, for example)?

Thank you Alan, and Bob, and WDBJ, for being responsive! And you guys are perhaps the best medium market station in the country in HD and digital technology.

Welcome aboard Alan. How's that Linux hobby going? You really should drop by the LUG more often ;-)

Good to see you doing well over at WDBJ..

I'll second that!!!

WDBJ's the only major network station out of Roanoke that can be easily received in Wytheville. The AFC side of the playoffs have been great, guys!

Now if only we could get Fox to turn up the power just a tad. . .

Next question, one week left before February, when will WDRL DT fire up the new transmitter on Smith Mountain.

The splicer is not remotely controlled by network to switch in and out, even though it can. Network leaves the actual switch to and from network to the station. The station needs to wire the splicer to their analog switcher so when it switches to network, the spicer followers and back again. If not, they need a "switch" to be flipped.

Hi

I live in SW County. I see where others in the Roanoke area are now getting Fox 21/27 in HD over the air. So far, I have not been sucessful in doing so myself.

Is the HD signal being broadcast from the Channel 17 transmitter? I can get a signal from that but it seems to fluctuate from 78 to 0 on my strength meter.

I can get the analog channel 27 signal fine, as well as every other local digital signal.

I also subscribe to Cox Cable's HD service. Is there any hope that FOX 21/27 will be supplying COX thier HD feed so that we can get it over cable like WDBJ-7 and WSET-13 do?

On my D* HD PRV, I'm now receiving the Fox HD signal on subchannels 21-1 (second one of two substations at 21-1), 21-3 and 27-1 (which also has the programming guide info). I wasn't pulling in the signal at 27-1 during American Idol on Wednesday night.

I couldn't get 27-1 on Wednesday night. I could receive American Idol on 21-1 with no PSIP data. Last night, I received Fox HD on 27-1 with complete PSIP data. Apparently, they fixed the mapping yesterday.

Elspence, glad you finally found the board! If you receive the other OTAs just fine, I would think that eliminates the problem being with your receiver. To me, drop-outs indicate issues with a weak signal and multipath. If WFXR is going from 78 to 0 in a snap, that tells me that you should be getting a 78 and your receiver is unable to reject multipath. Usually, the way you fix this problem is with a high gain antenna and a pre-amp. Being in SW Roanoke and that close to Poor Mountain, I would try a Wineguard Square Shooter 1000 with Pre-amp or Terk Off-Air HDTV Antenna (which is the same antenna just under the terk label) You don't even need to mount this outside to see if it will work, you could test it in your house.

Lee Hartman and Sons sells the Square Shooter, Best Buy sells the Terk.

I apparently wasn't clear with the way I wrote my previous message. I couldn't pick up the HD signal on 27-1 Wednesday night, but was successful in picking it up there late Thursday night, while still getting it at 21-1 and 21-3.

I have two 21-1s and one 21-2 and one 27-1

The first 21-1 is WJPR no psip. the second 21-1 is WFXR no psip, the 21-2 is WBVA no psip and the 27-1 is WFXR with psip.

This is OT from the locals forum but does anyone know why ESPN HD doesn't broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio? ...or if anyone knows of plans for ESPN HD to start presenting their HD content in DD5.1?

Also, why when they run a re-broadcast in HD it is never in widescreen.

Just checked and mine has the following reception:

21-1 (first of two): Searching for signal
21-1 (second of two): WFXR-HD subchannel with no guide data
21-2 (WBVA substation)
21-3 (says WJPRFox on station listing): WFXR-HD subchannel with no guide data
27-1: WFXR-HD subchannel with guide data

Wilbur, that first 21-1 is WJPR, the Fox feed from Thaxton Mountain. I can't receive it either. Are you able to receive WSET-DT over the air?

For whatever reason, ESPN went with Circle Surround as their 5.1 audio choice. Here's the info as provided from ESPN's Web site at this address:

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvl...ory?id=1678995

*In order to make the most of ESPN HD, look for a receiver with the SRS Circle Surround logo on the faceplate. ESPN HD uses this encoding system for their 5.1 surround sound track! Dolby Pro-Logic and Dolby Pro-Logic II decoders will also be able to produce a surround sound effect with the ESPN HD audio track. Also make sure your receiver bears the Dolby Digital and DTS logos to make the most out of all of your DVD movies.

No. I don't have an outdoor antenna because I rent, but I can pull in WDBJ, WFXR, WPXR, WSLS and the PBS digital signals with an antenna set up upstairs with no breakups. However, on the signal meter test of the D* HD PVR, I receive a zero signal strength from WSET (34 for 13-1) and WJPR.

Ah, Circle Surround instead of DD 5.1. I guess ESPN wanted Stouffers instead of Olive Garden. Thanks for the info Wilbur.

I have an outdoor antenna with a rotor and I am unable to receive WJPR or WSET. I'm guessing lack of signal strength.

The best thing to do is to delete all of them and do a rescan so you will only have the correct channels listed.

I tried Rescanning and l still picked up all of these channels.

Guys, having WDBJAlan on the forum takes a lot of pressure off of me. He actually knows what he's talking about. I have to fake it.

Trip,
Our Paramount contract expired. We're looking around in search of some other HD feature films.

I can watch us at home off the air and via Cox HD. Generally football looks pretty good to me. I think what you might be seeing are the cameras CBS uses during the game. They have the big HD1080i cameras up in the stadium which look fine. However, a lot of the cameras they use on the field are NTSC which are upconverted to a 1080i signal. These don't look so hot to me. I wonder if this is the pixelization you are seeing. At times, it does look pretty poor. I would imagine in time CBS will convert these to 1080i handhelds. But it's hard to know if the game you are watching is produced by a truck actually owned and outfitted by CBS or they contract it out to someone like NEP or one of the big dogs..