Norfolk, VA - HDTV - Page 3

I agree PBS is a special case. I think you are right about the poll and the obsession.

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For those interested in all things "Star Trek", our presentation of the first theatrical Star Trek movie on Saturday night (4/17/04) at 8:00 p.m. will be in H.D. The transfer to tape was done in the original aspect ratio. I personally supervised the recording of the feed sent to us by Paramount. It looks good!
Sorry to say, but this will be the only showing.

Enjoy!

George Randell
Chief Engineer
WGNT/WGNT-DT UPN
Viacom on Norfolk

This looks interesting:

http://www.cox.com/Sandiego/dvr/hd-dvr.asp

Read on another forum that Northern Va. will have this service availible in May....

http://www.network54.com/Forum/threa...&lp=1081949697

Just received word that Harris will debut a new encoder at NAB which does automatic low bandwidth barker channels as SD placeholders and will shift res on the fly without wacking out receivers.

Sounds too good to be true! Will keep everybody posted.

Jh

Sounds good George! I'll have to check it out.

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this, not being OTA related, but I will anyway:

I talked to a woman at cox this morning about the old firmware they are using in the 6200 boxes. she indicated that she will bring it up in a meeting next week, and let me know what the story is. But the other thing i found out is that cox is rolling out 2 more HD channels about may 1st. bravo HD and cinemax HD.

thats 10 so far! i would like to get an OTA box, but my wife still says that most of the channels will migrate to cox within a couple of years. she's probably right.

sm.

That sounds like great news sm....as long as they don't use it as an excuse to raise the HD rental rate!

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Robert, whether you know it or not, you hit the nail on the head with these two comments. It's going to be a moving target for a long time. There are variables a'plenty before the picture reaches your eyes, and there are going to be a lot of changes to things like encoders, multiplexers, etc. before things settle down. It will only get better in terms of how the bandwidth is managed for balancing maximum performance with maximum use. It's ultimately not going to be as simple as just counting the number of sub-channels and predicting how the main channel is going to look.

Yes, starting a few weeks ago we began upconverting to 720P in anticipation of the future FOX Network delivery format.

Thanks Les, that's what I figured. I'll have to just make a change on my STB to tune in.

Mike

Did she say whether or not Bravo HD would be in their standard or premium (pay) tier? Also, what was your interest in the firmware upgrade? Are you looking for DVI or firewire support? And I hope you are wrong about Cox migrating channels in a "couple years"! I just cancelled Voom. I may have to reconsider.

Harold,

Well we will see. There are those who made the same argument about color TV, CD's, DVD's etc. Only time will tell. I do believe that you are correct about quality suffering at the expense of quantity. I can only point out the plethora of channels on Cable and Satellite.

Given this discussion, I think the locals have some difficult decisions to make. I wonder if any of them wish to contribute?

I think WTKR is heading in the right direction by allocating BW according to the needs (or wants) at any particular time. I'm sure that at some point the encoders and such will be able to auto divy the BW as needed with the station only having to set whatever priorities they desire. In WHRO's case, the system could be programmed to split BW evenly during the day, but give the HD all or the lion's share during prime time. It seems that the options are almost endless, just depends on the stations particular needs. Just my $00.02

Digitude: i didnt ask about the $$$ aspect, as we have 6 digital boxes (1 HD) and all the channels (almost). kind of a non-issue in my house.

yes, the firmware issue is all about the dvi. i just got a 5 meter dvi-d cable in the mail for 48 bux, and i want to use it!!! so its either hd cable or buy a new dvd player. maybe the LG with the built-in HDOTA tuner??? hmmmmm.

as for a couple of years, i hope my wife is a little off on that one also. i want my HDTV!!!

sm.

Spruce - Don't be surprised if you don't hear back from them. I asked Cox about firmware update to V7.07 several weeks ago. No reply.

well, we will just have to keep asking/prodding them, wont we?

720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p are all considered High Definition formats. Because 720p is a progressive format, it requires bit rate close to that of 1080i.

From ABC:

A construction crew arrived this morning to install the new FOX Digital satellite dish, but we still haven't received the studio equipment from FOX and haven't been given a date for when we will receive it. Once the new dish is installed we'll begin to run tests to see if the existing backhaul equipment is up to the task, and if not we'll get Verizon involved then. I am still optimistic that we'll be ready for any FOX HD programming when it begins, but I've been wrong before.

Thanks, Peter, sounds great......MNF is always eye-popping in it's HD glory. I don't know why folks are fretting about 720p....a lot of people (including ABC and ESPN ) believe 720p is superior to 1080i for fast action (read sports) applications. That being said, I almost forgot to applaud this weekend's Masters on WTKR.....stunning, beautiful, and gripping golf to boot! Thanks, Ted....another job well done!

At 1059 PM each night the digital channels get ready for the late news by turning off the wide screen, going to a split screen and overlaying a local news anchor to "tease" the next newscast while the credits roll for the show just ending. No problem with the concept. The problem is that the overlay causes a significant "ghosting" effect on-screen. Is there any way to eliminate this ghosting during the overlay? Thanks.

Drew

I think 13 was converting 720p to 1080i last year and may still be doing so. Probably need to do a search on earlier threads, but I'm too busy. I can't wait until football season.

The worst case is that the Verizon codecs will have to be upgraded or switched out if they can't pass the compressed 270Mbps ASI data stream. We hope to be able to test the circuit soon, long before any FOX HD programming is scheduled to be available.

They still are.

Peter:

Thanks for the schedule. NO STEELERS! Guess they don't put you on Monday night when you Su*K.

Regards

Too bad Washington is only on once...

Depends on how you look at it! Could be a blessing.

I ordered Cox HD service the first day it became available last November. I noticed a flickering or stobing effect right away on nearly all NTSC channels. The weaker the signal (eg; channel 3) the more noticeable it is. Through mostly unscientific troubleshooting techniques (swapping various hardware and inputs) I determined that this stobing effect is being caused by the Motorola converter. Not just MY converter....THE converter. It does not appear on any of my other TVs (w/o converters) or with my DVR tuner. I've had an army of Cox technicians to my house who have agreed that the converter is at fault but can't tell me why. It has been replaced twice without success. Yet another Cox technician came to my house again yesterday. He tried everything before bringing in his own TV and connecting to the co-ax output of the 6200. We sat there and watched his video flicker in perfect unison to the picture on my plasma display (via component). I can't believe I am the only person in Tidewater seeing this. Anyone else here with Cox HD?

It's something WVEC has always done. A lot of affiliates side-convert 720p to 1080i... although I am not sure of the reasoning. Back when all this started, it seemed that most everybody's STB or HDTV would not natively display 720p. Obviously times have changed.

I (for one) can not enjoy native 720p broadcasts, as my STB (RCA DTC-100) side-converts to 1080i. Even if it didn't, my HDTV (Pioneer SD532HD5) would still upconvert to 1080i since it isn't capable of natively displaying 720p.

Spruce....I had a Cox guy at my house yesterday and he showed me the internal memo. Bravo HD will be standard tier. Also, they will have an OnDemand HD channel with barker on Ch 498

WTKR-DT


Golf this weekend is in HD and 5.1.....I will be out of town until April 26 at NAB. If CBS has any new HD news I will have it then. Happy DTVing!