Atlanta, GA - OTA - Page 12

It should be a pretty good game. I'll be watching on one of my 2 HD Tivos because one is getting pixellation and macro blocking, video stuttering supposedly from a bad drive which is covered under warranty but I will lose all of my recordings, golf, Playboy channel stuff, Tom Petty's Sounstage concert. Bummer. I got the second one last week with 2 300 gig HDs so I'll be set looking at it on the Fujitsu P50 plasma.

I was watching NBC last night and the HD signal dropped out for a time, they broadcast part of Las Vegas in SD...the HD came back on after a while however.

DN

Is Conan on NBC? I had many audio dropouts on that show in the wee hours..

50 minutes? Wow..

Sounds strange yet par for the course with HDTV.

What part of town are you in?

You said you tried without the preamp right? I got all the stations from rural Hall County with that antenna while it was sitting on the ground, no amp either.

FWIW,

The consensus was that Atlanta is the best HD OTA market in the country. Now you can all spray paint a big #1 on your CM4228's.

Go Falcons!!!!!!

Yes Conan is on NBC. Not sure if it is broadcast in HD, don't watch it that often. The Tonight Show is HD however, and it looks and sounds awesome..

DN

p.s. GO FALCONS!!

Yes Conan follows Jay Leno on NBC and it is not in HD.

Since there is some talk here of NBC -
I've read about some other audio issues with NBC DD, but was wondering if anyone/everyone else is experiencing very, very low audio from NBC OTA?
I don't understand why NBC's audio level is so much lower than all the other stations SD or HD.
Is this an issue for anyone else?
thanks,
jb

When BB set up my TV with the built-in tuner, they connected my antenna to the cable input. When they scanned the channels, it only picked up UHF analog channels and the digital VHF-NBC channel. I later tried the antenna input but got no results. I moved my antenna in the attic and went back to the cable input since it was receiving at least a digital signal. I finally tried the antenna input again and rescanned and instantly picked up all of the digital channels.

I am now watching ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, UPN, PBS, and TBS in HD format with a minimum signal strength of 98%.

I am in Woodstock, GA using a Channel Master 4228 antenna with a CM7777 pre-amp in my attic.

Now I can watch the Falcons this weekend in HD!

I'll have to check the audio levels when I get home tonight. It had not occurred to me but I do notice myself adjusting the audio a lot more with the digital signal than I did when I was using cable.

One thing that is very obvious to me is that the audio constantly drops out when they switch over to a live newscast. I could watch an entire program in HD with surround sound/no dropouts (like Law & Order) and as soon as the 11alive news comes on the sounds drops in and out every few seconds. It is is so annoying that it is unwatchable.

There are also a few pixels that keep flickering in the upper right hand quadrant of the screen during most SD digital programming on NBC. It completely disappears during an HD broadcast. Anybody else seen this?

I believe those pixels that you are referring to are from ABC and I have talked to the head engineer who said I was the first to notice this and it is due a new SD encoder that has a bug. It does not occur during an HD broadcast because the problem does not exist with the HD encoder. He supposedly is looking into fixing it but because no one else has complained I doubt that a lot of priority will go into it's getting fixed.

Sorry about the network mix-up. Where can we submit our humble complaint?

I have a question about shows that are simulcast in HD like LOST for example. Are they filmed in both SD and HD or is the HD downconverted? I'm assuming some are both and some are downconverted.

Nice job!

Thanks for following up with your problem.

The only reason I knew it was ABC was that I thought my Fujitsu plasma was starting to have pixel problems and I was frantic. When I noticed that it disappeared I was relieved. Then it came back, so I called the head engineer for the local ABC stations and asked him about it. He at first didn't fully understand what I was saying so he said he had not seen it and was not aware of it. I then repeated in detail what I was seeing and that it seemed to disappear when HD source material was displayed. He finally then remembered that he had seen it and that it was the new SD digital encoder that they had just installed. He said they would look into fixing it but I didn't believe that I would see it corrected anytime soon.

Got home and did the double-check. It is ABC/SD material only. Attached is a snapshot of what it looks like. (Not the greatest shot but you'll get the idea.)

Now as for audio...I'm watching The Apprentice on NBC and the sound is dropping out every every 10-14 seconds for about a second. My signal strength is a solid 95% with no flux. As soon as HD material comes on the sound is solid.

Something is definitely amiss.

I watched the Apprentice on digital 11 via Adelphia cable, the sound was fine...picture looked pretty good too actually..

DN

This is happening with the OTA signal.

Have you tried channel up to the next channel and then channel down back to your original channel. Sometimes the signal does not sync up right and you have to reacquire the signal so that it locks in better. There was a huge discussion about this about a year ago as I recall and it was an audio sync issue.
As far as the pixel problem with ABC, we need to get as many people to call the head engineer and complain about it. The squeakey wheel gets the grease.

I'll give the channel up/down thing a shot and let you know.

Does anyone know who to call about the pixel problem? Or where to find that info? I'll be glad to post my complaint or make a phone call.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

Phillip,
Read this:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=459218

And posts by me in this Atlanta thread on Page 8 and 9.

This brings me to wonder why there's not a whole sub-forum for each city. one page of threads can be tedious to search through...especially when the frickn search function isn't working right...

Cory

Yes, I just spoke to the engineer that I had spoke to before. His name is Gary Pearcy and he said the problem is with a board in the Harris encoder. Harris will not send a replacement board and they are reluctant right now to take it down and send it off for a replacement board. The number is 404-897-7409 Ext. 2209. He is a nice guy so don't give him a hard time, just politely state that the pixels are annoying. Also, you might want to talk to Gene Faulkner who is head of engineering.

Thanks to everyone that has repsonded so far.
It got a little off topic with the ABC/NBC confusion
So just to check again-
Is the NBC audio OTA SD and HD volume alot lower than all other stations?
I am using an HDTivo. But I believe it is a station issue and not a tuner issue.
thanks guys,
jb

jbstix,

I've never noticed that NBC HD volume was lower than others' HD volume. WGCL is louder. And non-digital SD is consistently louder than HD. The vloume on the digital channels is generally the same whether it is HD or SD.

Tom

Anybody watching 3rd Watch on NBC tonight? Looks like it's not in HD and audio is stereo. Still having the audio drop out while in SD. Annoying.

Anybody in the Hamilton Mill / Mall of Georgia area?

I just had a Winegard antenna installed by Voom and am getting spotty locals. According to Antennaweb I'm between 20 - 32 miles from most stations.

I'm going call tomorrow to see about getting a better antenna (thought the Winegard was a good one, but the distance may be too much) but wanted to check with someone in my area to see what type of reception I can expect out here.

This is what I get:

Channel..Desc...Strength
36-1.......WATL...87
5-1.........WAGA..91 (comes and goes)
5-2.........WAGA..91 (comes and goes)
2-1.........WSB....92
2-2.........WSB....92
43-1.......WUPA..93
63-1.......TBN......87
63-2.......TBN......87
63-3.......TBN......87
63-4.......TBN......87
34-1.......WUVG..88
14-1.......WPXA...81 (almost no signal)
30-1.......WPBAD..? (almost no signal)

I can't get a signal at all with WXIA (NBC) or the local WTBS.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Gary

Alot of people have had great results with the Channel Master 4228 which is only supposed to pick up UHF stations but also picks up the one VHF station also which is Channel 11.1 (VHF-NBC Atlanta). Maybe your antenna won't pick up VHF signals.

one VHF station?

antennaweb reports FOX, ABC, and NBC as being VHF ... are they wrong?