Waco / Bryan, TX - HDTV - Page 214

The problem was not there at all yesterday during the Superbowl, or the pregame. It looked great.
Glad to hear we might soon have DD sound!

We've never spoken on the phone, FOX44CE. But nevertheless, thank you for your willingness to respond to potential issues so quickly.

There's a NASCAR race today; that should be 5.1 I assume. I'll check it then. Thanks!

Fox44, it's definitely coming through in 5.1. Surrounds are hot, makes it feel like your at the track.

Maybe its just my setup but I noticed while watching Fringe Friday night and House tonight (Monday) that in any scenes set indoors I could barely hear the dialog, I could hear the background noises loud and clear. I checked on both my Windows Media Center 7 setup using Clear QAM and an old Zenith CRT TV in the living room using the analog tuner, no cable box. I live in an apartment near Holleman and Wellborn and Suddenlink is our cable provider.

Let me know if any more details are needed.

I was coming in to report the levels problem also (I thought the race on Sunday was that way because it's kind of supposed to be loud at a race track). The surrounds are way high and center channel is almost always overwhelmed.

Last night the sound levels were much better. I am, however experiencing total audio loss for about a second every two minutes. This happens on both HD and SD channels (Suddenlink). It's not happening on any other channel, and it doesn't matter if the feed is national or local. Maybe a Suddenlink issue?

Well, the audio during Am. Idol has not dropped once, but I'm not getting 5.1. Is Idol not in 5.1? I don't know. The commercials are extremely low volume-not that there's anything wrong with that unless you're paying for the ads.

KRIV Houston is DD5.1 right now...

Well, I was called out of town yesterday on a work project, but the people I've spoken to in the office this this morning are saying that last night during AI the audio was much improved. Even during the commercials.

The audio was much better in Fringe last night, I was actually able to hear the dialog over the background sounds.

Thanks FOX44CE

I would like to support this poster because we have been having this issue on quite a few shows as of late. Just last week during Chicago Code (KYLED-705) @ 8pm CST the entire episode was Background audio +20 on volume and the dialog was barely audible. I had to attempt to isolate my center channel and pump up the volume on that in order to hear the actual dialog. It's not the first time it's happened during Chicago Code. It's also happened a couple of times during House which is on the same channel showing the previous hour @ 7pm CST.

Also during Nascar when it's showing on FOX we have been getting the same type of audio issue. The dialog of the announcers will be light and the audio of the track and the crowd and everything else will be quite a bit louder. To the point that I have to once again isolate the center channel and manually attempt to turn down the rest of the audio.

What troubles me more is that commercials, that air in the middle of the effected shows, are NOT effected. Many shows on Fox are also not effected.

What I need to know, is this a FOX broadcast issue or is this a Suddenlink issue? Or maybe is this a signal issue or a DVR issue?

This is in addition to sound actually dropping out on occasion on FOX as well. Sometimes the sound will complete cut out for a split second and then come back. It may happen an entire show ever 5 minutes or so but will not happen at all during commercials or other shows.

Does anyone have any advice for how I should proceed to fix this issue?

Thank you.

P.S. - This audio issue does not exist on other channels. Hence my assumption that FOX is at fault.

Exact same symptoms here via Dish Network in Bryan (KWTK, I think?). Disproportionately loud left, right, & surrounds such that dialog sounds muffled and distant. Noticed it on House (especially), Fringe, and even American Idol for the last week or two.

The issues you are reffering to were a result of our upgrade on KYLE FOX 28 to surround sound.
The audio dropouts were traced to an incorrect audio reference setting in our HD Encoder and corrected.
The level issues were a result of incorrect channel mapping in the surround encoder which have also been corrected.
The encoded 5.1 audio from FOX is now passed through to the KYLE surround system unchanged.

Yours issues with FOX 44 are not related to the issues posted regarding KYLE FOX 28.

Dish Network carries KWKT FOX 44. The entire MPEG2 Video/Audio stream received from FOX via satellite is passed through the FOX Splicer at our studio to the KWKT transmitter unmodified.
Dish Network and Direct TV receive our signal OTA and up-link to satellite at their combined facility in Waco.
What they do to the signal from that point to delivery is known only to them.

Since we do not touch the FOX stream in any way, any issues you have with Dish Network would need to be directed to them.

Thank you FOX44CE for your quick and detailed reply. I glad that the issues have been fixed. NASCAR has been flawless this weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that all the new programing next week on FOX is also flawless. New episodes aren't as enjoyable when you feel like you are in a fish bowl when watching them.

I guess that I can assume that everything is OK with KYLE 5.1 audio during FOX since nobody has posted anything since Sunday.

Please forgive me if I'm in the wrong forum but we are moving to Coll-Sta in May. (Greens Prarie/Wellborn subdivision type area, single story.) Presuming an outside OTA antenna is prohibited, will I be able to receive HDTV local channels with an attic antenna? Or am I doomed to cable or dish?
Any help would be appreciated!

John

This site will give you the best advice: http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx Click the "choose an antenna" button.

Use the site mentioned above, but it is illegal (federal law) for any HOA to prohibit you from using an outdoor antenna.

Everything sounded perfect to me last night with House.

Thanks again!

American Idol is coming through tonight smashed into a wide aspect ratio for some reason. KWKT via Dish.

The SD channel should be displayed in letterbox.
The HD channel should be displayed 16:9 full screen.

The display is controlled by Dish Network equipment.

Well sure. In this circumstance, the HD channel was being squashed to more like 2.35:1, letterboxed in the 16:9 frame. It was the only affected channel at the time. Curious, but it hasn't happened since.

Sounds like we switched to our backup SD feed for some reason.
I'm out of town but will check on our confidence recorder when I get back Thursday..

Update: 04/25

I checked our confidence recorder for American Idol on 04/13 from 7PM to 8PM.
American Idol was broadcast in full 16:9 HD through the entire show on both KWKT and KYLE.

NOTE: Our confidence recorder records both stations from OTA antennae in HD.

Watching House OTA, FOX 28, tonight (5-02) , I noticed several annoying audio dropouts. My pre/pro showed signal normally as DD 48khz 3/2 + LFE, but during brief dropouts (once at a key point in the dialog!), it showed "No Audio". No disruption of the video, only the audio.

It happened on KWKT also.
Checking with Fox for clarification.

Update: 05/05.

Our Shreveport & Lafayette stations had the same issue.
FOX says it wasn't them..............

I have been a DTV customer for 11 years and I am having an issue of which I am rather frustrated.

I had 2 HR20's, one 100 and one 700 and received my locals via off-air connected directly to the boxes. I then subscribed to the whole home dvr service. OK, I could watch 6-1 (Waco/Temple NBC) and it would be pristine, clear and sharp. However, anything recorded from this channel was either completely garbled, no matter which machine it was played from, or (very rarely) the recording would be viewable but it would constantly drop out/digitize out. This happened 9 times out of 10.

I called several times to complain about the recording issue and that the machines seem to respond in slow-motion when using the multi-room viewing. I was bumped up to the HR21-700's, two of them and the AM-21's for locals. I installed them myself. I am still miffed that after 11 years DTV WILL NOT give me the latest equipment, and that even one of the HR-21-700's sent to me was a refurbished unit. But more of the same and again, only with channel 6-1 (NBC). Again, about 90% of the time.

I called in again to complain. The tech on the phone noticed that I used my gigabit backbone (hard wired CAT 6 cables, gigabit router and gigabit switches) instead of the DECA units, so they insisted this was the problem. A tech was sent out, DECA's were installed, units were reset and I proceeded with normal TV recording and viewing. The tech that came out said that he felt the AM-21's were the culprit as the signal is sent to the DVR on the same "bandwidth" as many of the DTV channels and the DVR is getting interference. I disagreed as the signal itself coming in seems to be fine. But, now something new is happening with the DECA's installed and the gigabit ethernet disconnected: 6-1 when viewed is sharp and clear, but now anything recorded from it is clear and sharp, but ALL DVR functions do not work, such as rewind, fast-forward and commercial skip. When I try to use them, it freezes at the spot I am on for about 10 seconds or so then jumps back to the beginning of the program. If I just let it play, it plays without incident, but I am stuck watching commercials. I am really confused.

When just viewing the channel and nothing recording to the LIST, even the rewind live TV function seems to freak out. I can view for a couple of minutes, go to rewind and the units freeze for the customary few seconds, then jumps back to the spot in the program at the moment I tuned to channel 6-1. This happens probably 70% of the time I try it.

I called in to complain again, and this time, I was told that they were bumping it up to the software engineers and that an ETA for getting back to me could not be offered. I was hoping to throw this out to the "A-game" crowd and get some thoughts. Thanks!

Before anyone jumps on it, this is not a knock on 6-1 (NBC.) This is a recording/playback issue for 6-1, not the signal. Nor do I want to make this an issue of whether or not I should subscribe to locals through DTV or receive them free via off-air antenna. My reasons for receiving via off-air is that the signals are MUCH better quality, both video and audio and I DO NOT lose the signal for locals in bad weather. Most of our recording is via locals, so having them always on is vital, not to mention during the storms recently with all the tornadoes, I never lost any local channel signal and was able to get weather information.

I don't have the whole house setup, so I can't speak to that.

Do you have some ancient grandfathered package? I ask because (so far as I know) you don't have the option of NOT subscribing to locals if they're available in your area.

As for weather, I rely on 25-3. They do the best job on severe weather and have a powerful signal - at least where I live. I didn't lose that signal during the last round of storms. For that matter, 25 off the satellite continued to work fine as well. Our locals are on a spot beam and the signal is more powerful than we get for the CONUS channels.

There's a different problem with channel 6. 6-2 programming shows in our guide (if you set it to all channels) but the actual program is 6-1. That means I can't watch the occasional Mavericks/Rangers games that play on 6-2 unless I turn off the DVR and watch using my tv tuner alone. It's an issue with Tribune Media (they provide the guide data) linking with DirecTV in some fashion. I've tried to get Tribune to correct it but I finally just gave up. You may recall that we had similar problems when we had the switchover from the 72.5 sat for locals a few years ago.

They send out the station information incorrectly. My Windows 7 MC box won't even tune 6.1 or 6.2 because of bad data on the stations end. My TV tuner has no issues with it. Luckily I don't rely on 6.1 for NBC programming in my area so I can still record NBC via KXAN (Austin), but I would like to record some of the programming on 6.2.