Norfolk, VA - HDTV - Page 20

For commercial skipping, I usually use 60x FF instead of 30 sec. skip. It tends to be easier and once in awhile I will pass something I want to go back and see....

BTW, my replacement HDTiVo should be here around Wednesday. Robert from VE is treating me right!

I just heard that COX added NBCHD. IS that true? anyone have cox?

Of interest to Cox subscribers:

http://www.forbes.com/businesswire/f...7005131r1.html

Digitude... Thanks for that link! I was wondering what model number they were going to roll-out. The DCT-6412 has the dual tuner the 6408 doesn't.

I have ReplayTV now on my old analog set-up and I'm hoping the 6412 is a good box. I'm taking the HD plunge very soon. Already ordered the stand for the TV -- wife hates the stands the big boxes carry. Domes will be connecting ALL of this up -- antenna installation, additional speakers throughout the great room, etc...

Unless it was added in the wee hours this morning I didn't have it last night. Cox said they were adding BravoHD several months ago but that never happened either.

Thanks Tude.

I've been a fan of Law and Order for many years. But I almost gave up trying to watch L&O Criminal Intent. The story lines are so complex and convoluted that the distraction of 18-20 minutes of commercials just made it impossible to follow the plot without commercial skip.

ReplayTV skips the entire commercial block. It immediately turns an hour long program into 44 minutes... Way cool...

Happy Birthday Robert!

Thanks!

No 710 on my guide, even after a reboot.

Sorry, I think someone misled me. Dont mean to start any rumors.

A CSR at Cox told me that they should have NBCHD by the end of August.

Not to dispute what they told you but I think Cox CSRs haven't a clue about anything. NOTHING AT ALL! I think their answer to any query is directly proportional to how quickly they want to get you off the phone. I'd be happy to eat crow on this one but don't hold your breath.

It is not just the digital, which suffers from a wicked case of screendoor, they use for trailers that is bad. That whole system is in desperate need of calibration particularly the audio. I saw Harry Potter 3 there recently and was surprised at the poor quality of the audio and video.

As for PBS picture quality I have been unimpressed with the picture via Cox HD. It is noticeably inferior to other Cox offerings particularly the 2 InHD channels which look quite good. Again a lot depends not only on the source but the display type and screen size. On a 92" screen it becomes quite easy to discern which HD stations are getting it right and those that are not. That said I am sure it is possible, even likely, that Cox is compressing the signal beyond what you would normally obtain via OTA which could lead to the substandard presentation.

Could not agree with you more. When it comes to HD they are some of the most uninformed around.

I dont think Cox is the culprit on this one. And if the multicasting continues to grow and COx adds the local HD channels, then I dont see the need for OTA tuners anymore either. The whole thing with OTA HD was the superior quality is fading away with multicasting.

I guess since you're lucky enough to have Cox there is no need for the rest of us to have OTA access? In spite of what you and some others think there are viewers who have to rely on OTA. Best of all it's free!

Damn! I don't think I've ever seen the words Cox and lucky in the same sentence.

Well, you are outside of the grade B contour. Ive heard you say you have the D* CBSHD distant network feed before, so you qualify or have qualified for a waiver. And D* says distant HD network feeds are coming soon. At that time you wont need the OTA anymore. If multicasting continues with current technologies the distant Sat HD network feeds will look better anyway. Some of us are not lucky enough to have access to those distant network feeds. LMAO. Believe me I would jump at having those rather than COX cable being the only other option.

Any comments on ESPN's HD presentation of last night's football game? Looked darn good to me. The logos and all of the cameras seemed to be HD. I didn't see any pixelizations or jaggies either. Even the Budwieser commercials looked good.

I watched both NBC presentations of the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies tonight on 10-1 and 10-2. Technically, they were both OK, but I will be watching the SD version until I return to HD for the closing ceremonies. Even though 10-2 is "bit-starved", it is still technically good enough for me for the current Olympics. Waiting for the HD showings is too much for me and watching the last Winter Olympics in HD during the current Summer Olympics is just plain ridiculous. WAVY can save some money by turning off their HD system for the next two weeks as far as I am concerned. (This is not a hit against WAVY...I know they just pass through what they are sent.)

Drew

Drew,

Just curious. Why is watching the Olympus in HD "too much"? Usually we are complaining about poor quality HD and your statement is a bit of a twist.

Thanks

By "too much" I meant having to wait an additional day to watch the same program on HD as was broadcast the previous day in SD. As in "too much to ask of someone". I don't have that much patience. IMO HD and SD should be the same programs. NBC has already announced that this will be the case for the next Olympics.
Notes:
Dumb: HD being delayed SD broadcasts
Dumber: Showing reruns of the last Winter Olympics as the opening act of this year's Summer Olympics
Dumbest: SONY using such low resolution video on their HD advertisements

Drew

It was good broadcast.

10-1 looked bit starved to me. Close ups of athletes walking quickly and the fireworks looked like watching from behind a screen door with a large mesh. Looked as if it were about the break into blocks.

I just can't see the same problems you do. I did not experience any problems during the 10-1 broadcast last night. The NBC-HD had excellent PQ on my receiver.

I saw no macro-blocking at all on 10-1 -- I did see a little bit on 10-2 -- and I only saw motion artifacts on the most intense action, such as the DNA ladder light show. I don't know if those artifacts were incoming to us or not. The 5.1 audio sounded very good to me.

On the 10-1 blocking- I don't see it on my USDTV 4th gen set.

Any receiver bought up to this date and probably until Christmas is junk. We're actually throwing our "early" stuff away. I've seen the 5th gen receiver reports and they exhibit none of the wide varieties of complaints I see here on the VERY few times I return these days, due to the direction these forums took. We can't keep adjusting transmitters to the lowest common denominator box, many of which can't even handle the PSIP load.

And even the 5th gen receivers (which you still can't buy) will be toasted by the EVSB stuff, which will force all of us to retire our 2 or 3 -year-old receivers since EVSB will not be backward compatible.

And to those who say - you promised this or that and didn't deliver, none of the program providers have kept to their promises, so the locals have to just take what we get dealt. Mr. Willis- our channelization choices now are different than planned, because the national cable agreements are now inked and coming, and that dictates our channel mapping.

We slapped some of these $198 USDTV tuners now at WalMart on the bench next to our 2 year old $5000 pro receivers, and our 1-2 year old home receivers, and the USDTV boxes beat them all hands-down every time on blocking, locking, tuning and PSIP. Using a table top antenna.

It's a good thing when we work as a team and identify real problems, and maybe that is what has been happening here lately. But everyone needs to understand just how bad the equalizers, decoders, and filters are on every receiver marketed to date. And there is not time in my world to debate minutia over badly-built receivers.

Jh

Sorry- cmont- this is a Cox/HRO problem related to them not being able to cherry-pick the full 1080i from the fiber feed. $45,000 worth of equipment to resolve this will hopefully be installed this fall. The sat stuff they get as direct ASI streams out of their receivers at full BW.

Jh