Lafayette, LA / Beaumont, TX / Lake Charles, LA - HDTV - Page 6

thanks arcade for the info, can you suggest maybe the best outdoor antenna.

Sure. Here is link to the one I own from Radio Shack. It is $59.00 and picks up all my local stations very well. I am guessing I am about 25 to 30 miles from the transmitters.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D2152

Anyway all antennas will pick up HD signals. You do not need anything special. I hooked my antenna to a chimney mount and ran the coax cable through my ridge vents down to my tv. It was a very easy process. Now all my stations are locked in without having to turn the antenna at all..

Hope this helps.
Leon.

copotay, Buy the channelmaster 4228 from Ralphs electronics on Cameron Street-- Roof mount it as high up as you can...this is the BEST antenna period.

ps If you remove the screen you'll also receive channels from the back end of this antenna... I'm receiving WBRZ from Baton Rouge from the back end of this antenna at 80 percent signal strength!.. and by may or june of this year, you will also receive WVLA/WGMB Baton Rouge. Good luck!

currently receiving; (USING CM 4228 COMBINED WITH RADIOSHACK 120, 30 FEET HIGH)

KATC DTV
KADN DTV
KLFY DTV
KPLC DTV
KLPB DTV
WBRZ DTV

thanks to both of yall for the information

jfklennon.
By Radioshack 120 do you mean the 120" VHF antenna?
If so how easy was it to combine the Channel Master with that antenna?
Does it just attach to the front like the UHF part that comes with the 120?
Thanks.

Arcade, its the radioshack 120 inch boom uhf/vhf combo, combined the two antennas using a splitter in reverse. Added the cm 4228 to the 10 foot mast directly below the radioshack antenna.

Something is up with the KADN DT signal. For the first time ever, I saw something that my 4:3 HD set squeezed down to 16:9. The rerun of "Friends" is in windowbox, and the signal comes up a channel 16 on my tuner. Also, the network show that was in 16:9 had a different bug than the analog signal.

Any ideas?
Ben

Just bumping this thread to see if anyone else might know what could be happening with KADN.

Ben

KADN is now broadcasting in High-Definition!!

Ben

Yes I see now that Kadn is broadcasting in HD. Cant wait to see the Daytona 500 it should be cool. It appears the part came in that the KADN tech told me about that he was waiting for as i previously posted.

this is a test post to be able to post links according to rules of 5 posts before adding links

To jfklennon: thanks again, I was planning to purchase the channelmaster 4228 from ralphs and just so happened to be at radio shack when i saw the following antenna for $24.00

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D2160

I decided to give it a try by installing it in my attic, about 20 feet off the ground, and am now able to recieve katc, kadn, klfy, and klpb.

FYI: If anyone has one of the sony wegas with built in hd tuner, i had to make it digitally search for the channels from the menu. Direct input with the remote did not work on every channel, especially when kadn is supposed to be on 16.1 and ended up on 16.3 on my sony.

FYI 2: I had originally tried the indoor terk tv5 and an indoor radio shack antenna which were both amplified, however could only get klfy and klpb. I also tried using either of the two along with the $24.00 radio shack outdoor antenna in my attic, but they would kill katcs channels, 3.1 and 3.2 for some reason. i guess it might be due to these channels being in the vhf range altough according to their permit from the fcc it shows them supposedly broadcasting on channel 28 in uhf.

link to fcc site is here:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state...&slon2=&size=9

Hope this helps anyone who needs.

to jfklennon: I'm still thinking of purchasing the channel master from ralphs due to a little distortion on klpb and looking at trying to get baton rouge. Do you think i can hook both antennas together or will it disrupt the signals?

And do you know a ball park figure of how much the channel master cost from ralphs?

Copotay: You can connect both antenna's, I just use a splitter in reverse, works fine for me...but there is a product called join-tenna that is made specifically for combining two antennas. If you plan on keeping your antenna in the attic the cm 4228 will probably only help increase the signal strength of the stations you already receive. It is possible that placing the 4228 in the right spot in your attic could bring in additional stations, For best results remove the screen from the 4228 and always install the antenna outside.


around $50.00

[Mod Edit] Reformatted quotes

thanks for the info jfklennon i'm going to try hooking them together in the attic first and then if it fails ill head outside with them, its just that its very convieniant for the moment in the attic. as it was when my home was built there was no wiring to the rear of the tv except for one cable line and i just had to fish another cable wire down from the attic inside the wall to the rear of the tv for the antenna. that was fun!!

thanks again

Good Luck with you antenna positioning. I bought the biggest one Radio Shack has to offer (160" Long Dual Boom, 57 Element Antenna) which is supposed to have the following specs:

RANGE:
VHF = 190 miles
UHF = 100 miles
FM = 100 miles

I have trouble getting all my local stations here in Beaumont not to mention with all our trees getting Lake Charels is an impossibility. I can get CBS and ABC but I can not get NBC. They all have local towers too. If I can only get all my neighbors to cut their trees down I would probably be OK. There was the one crazy night I picked up EVERY station in Houston. I've never been able to recieve a Houston signal again!

thanks again jfklennon, i hooked both of them together and the signal has increased

The new Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR's are in at Time Warner (Beaumont area.)
(Special thanks to Lantano for getting them to admit they were in.)

I picked mine up today and so far so good.
No sound out of sync, Improved SD and HD picture quality, Active HDMI port, ability to add external hard drive for more recording space, Front of unit tells what mode you are in such as 1080i 720p or 480i.

They are not really ready to release these to the general public but if you know they are there you can talk them into giving you one. So far they are only available at the Nederland office.
Enjoy.

Thanks Arcade....have you tried the HDMI port ?

does anyone know if time warner has a regular HD box with an active hdmi or dvi port? I think I have the motorola 5100 and all it has is component.

I have not orderd my cable yet. But Lantano has and it does indeed work.

What channel is KADN broadcasting their digital channel. I live in Alexandria and I can pick up CBS. I wanted to try fox but I have no idea what channel to use for the manual scan. Their website seems to be pretty useless and antennaweb.org does not list a digital channel for fox in Lafayette. Thanks in advance.

Nevermind. I just found it on antennaweb. How is the signal strength compare to KLFY?

Lantano.... can you tell a difference between HDMI and component when it comes to a cable source?

We have received 2 (of 3) pieces of equipment we need to start broadcasting Dolby Digital 5.1 (r) Surround Sound (SS) on our HDTV programs. With any luck, KFDM should start broadcasting SS in time for the NCAA games; all of which are supposed to be broadcast in HD and SS.
Quite a few prime time shows are available in SS including CSI and its clones.

Thought you might want to know this since the new BB just opened today.

Richard

Thanks Richard. Great News. I am looking forward to the games on CBS.

I spent the better part of 30 min. on the phone with the chief engineer of KBMT channel 12 a couple of days ago. He was very informative. I gave him the link to this group which he is now reading so if you post here he will now see it.
He has to ask his boss if he can post here because he says it is kind of like P.R. for the station.
Anyway in our conversation he said that they are still debating the new tower but are hoping to get better signal coverage and hopefully broadcast in HD by the end of this year. The cost for local stations to switch to HD is very expensive. I think $140,000 is in the ball park.
He also said that channel 4 is planning to increase their signal strength for their digital broadcast as well. But as far as I know there is no HD plans in the works for those guys. If anyone hears differently let us know.
Also mentioned was the fact that if they can they plan to go back to 12.1 on VHF and drop the UHF 50.1 due to the higher cost of transmitting.

I think that is about it but when I find out more I will post here.

Thanks for the info, Arcade. Hopefully, the local stations will start broadcasting HD on cable soon, just can't stand watching shows w/o being able to timeshift using the TWC DVR....also plan on going to p/u the 8300 sometime today, if possible.

Hi folks,

user HDTV6 posted this, I think accidentally, as a seperate thread, so it got locked. I am posting it here so that you folks don't miss it.

****begin HDTV6 comments *******

multicasting

With the upcoming NCAA finals (March madness) to begin this Thursday, we (KFDM) will be able to provide up to three different games at once.
If you don't like the game on channel 6, maybe the game on 6.1 or 6.2 would be more interesting.


The theory is that our "assigned game" (on analog) will air on channel 6. If our assigned game is in HD, then it will also be on digital 6.1. Some other game (of uncle Larry's choosing) will be shown on digital 6.2.

If our (analog) assigned game is not available in HDTV, then Larry will pick one of the games available in HD for 6.1 and yet another game for 6.2. A total of 3 games at once is possible.

Of course, only the game on 6.1 will be available in Surround Sound.

*****end HDTV6 comments ******


I love the way KFDM is handling this for you folks, I think you're lucky. It's just how I would want our local CBS to handle it with one exception. In the cases where your "assigned" game is in HD, but it has no more local interest than the other HD game, I would put the other HD game on 6.1 for more variety.

Anyway, enjoy the madness, and watch out for a repeat National Champion.

Thanks Jake14mw!

I obviously need to visit the help section.

Richard

Thanks Jake14mw!

I obviously need to visit the help section.

I will advise Larry of your thoughts. I think you might be right.

Richard