Fargo, ND - HDTV - Page 40

I guess I don't usually have an issue picking it up. Last night I had probably 90% signal strength, today about 33% with 0% quality.

Are you able to get the analog signal?

On our Samsung TV I can, but not via my HD Homerun (ATSC only)

Guess this means no Twins/Tigers in HD this afternoon, on FOX Saturday baseball.

That's right. I forgot about that!

It sure would be nice to watch this.

Thanks a lot KBRR!!!!!!!!!

anyboy know if and when Midcont will be adding kvrr-dt to their line up.

still unable to pick up a kvrr-dt. started to get a sig. but then it dropped under 50 again.

It's in and out on mine.

The bad thing for me about the weak KVRR-DT signal is that my DirecTV DVR won't pick up the signal. My TV on the other side of a splitter picks it up just fine still. That hasn't been a big problem (just an annoyance) so far, but tomorrow night Terminator is supposed to record in HD. I won't be able to watch it live, as I'll be at a friend's place watching the Vikes. So I think I'm going to fall to the backup and record the SD channel, too. But it does get annoying when the HD signal is down so often lately.

FYI I did try switching the line that goes to my TV and the line that goes to my DirecTV box, and still nothing. The DVR must just have a weaker tuner than my Sony TV.

This is a reason I can't wait for the digital transition. You just know if the digital signal were the only one on the air, nobody would be saying stuff like no idea how long until the main signal is up, etc. They'd be overnighting parts, working through the night, etc. until it was back on the air. But now that it's still the secondary signal they can sit on their hands and fix it the cheapest way possible, rather than the fastest.

Did KVLY and CableOne ever get their contract figured out? I know cable customers were without HD on KVLY and KXJB for a while, because the stations wanted CableOne to pay them, and CableOne basically told them to take a flying leap. That's my next concern, that we get the locals in HD on the dish, but not all of them.

No. We still don't get KXJB-DT & KVLY-DT on CableOne. I was hoping that by football season, they would have, but still nothing.

The Vikes will be on CBS next week, so at least we'll be able to see that in HD OTA. I'm hoping KVRR is fixed within 2 weeks then!

I agree with Puck above. Once they don't have the analog signal to fall back on, they'll probably be faster about fixing these problems. Why does KVRR seem to have so many more problems than the other stations?

Maybe has some better insights, but according to the latest FCC filing ( http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws....&fac_num=55370 ), it looks like KBRR is giving up on its current site and co-locating with Prairie Public North of Crookston (the KCGE site), and it looks like they are giving a February 21st on-air date now....(their previous filing showed a June date)...
On a related note, does anyone know why PPT is going to co-locate KCGE-DT and KGFE-DT? I would think it would make more sense to to put KGFE on PP's 89.3 tower west of Oslo, MN...That would fill in some holes left behind by abandoning the Petersberg site....

I'm not surprised that they'd be co-locating the new DTV transmitter with PPTV. We've already hopped onto most of their microwave sites and shut down most of ours. I think a couple other stations are riding on Prairie's microwave backbone, so if their links go down, several stations including ours will (with the exception of our Barnesville/Rollag site for KVRR since that link is independent).

Your studio is in Fargo, isn't it? My antenna is already pointed that direction to get the other stations. I guess the signal just isn't strong enough to come in consistently.

I was able to watch Terminator last night, recorded using EyeTV on my Mac mini. Everything was just fine except for one small skip, which I think was my own fault.

Yes, the studio is in Fargo about a block or two north of the Hornbachers on 13th Ave S.
The backup digital I believe is only around 1kw output (not sure the ERP out the antenna), but I could be wrong. So depending on how far out of the immediate Fargo area you are the signal may degrade quickly. Also, the digital backup antenna is a side mount type so you might be pointing at a bad spot in the lobe where the signal isn't at good.
If our backup tower was taller you'd likely have a fairly strong signal.

To keep you guys up to date, the parts came in for the regulator supply at the main site. Engineers were out there today but I don't know their progress. Hopefully before the end of the week the main digital will be back on the air.

I'm just north of Breckenridge. I get a pretty good signal at night, but not during the day.

Again, thanks for the information. I hope the main digital is up by the end of the week, too!

For me, KVRR can keep their backup antenna running full time!

I finally have 100% signal strength with a simple bowtie up against the NW corner of my house, directly in line with the other 4 towers 25 and 40 miles away

Normally KVRR is 160+ degrees off the others and very hard to get above 75-80% and breaks up with any wind / rain.

Sounds like the main digital is back up and running, I'd assume at normal power. Hope things are better now!

Did anyone else notice FX HD show up on the guide today(?) I can't access the channel currently. I hope that's because it's not active yet. I really hope it isn't because Cableone wants you to pay extra for it like HGTV and Food Network. Does anyone know the situation with this channel?

Yes, I saw that too. On channel 421. Is it not active for me either. One of the scroll messages on the botton of the weatherscan channel (29) says that FXHD is coming on Sept. 15th. I am guessing that they have added it to the channel guide, but it is not active yet.

In case anyone is wondering, here is an updated list of the HD channels CableONE currently has, and the status (encrypted/clear) and package (pay/free) status of each. Channels that are encrypted, you need an HD Set Top Box to recieve, and ones that are clear you can get with just a clearQAM tuner.

420 ABC Family HD (free/encrypted)
421 FX HD (Coming Soon)
423 History HD (free/encrypted)
425 Discovery Channel HD (free/encrypted)
426 Disney HD (free/encrypted)
428 TLC HD (free/encrypted)
450 HBO HD (pay/encrypted)
451 Showtime HD (pay/encrypted)
452 TBS HD (free/clear)
453 The Movie Channel HD (pay/encrypted)
454 TNT HD (free/clear)
455 WDAY-DT (free/clear)
470 KFME-DT (free/clear)
475 KVRR-DT (free/clear)
490 Universal HD (free/clear)
491 ESPN HD (free/clear)
492 ESPN2 HD (free/clear)
494 Discovery HD Theater (free/clear)
495 National Geographic HD (free/clear)
496 A&E HD (free/clear)
497 HGTV HD (pay/encrypted)
498 Food Network HD (pay/encrypted)

Yes, everything is working fine now. I think the signal may be stronger than it's ever been!

Thanks for the find about the 15th! Great news! Can't wait to watch the rest of the final season of The Shield in HD!

I have to give KVRR credit for having a backup transmitter ready to go with little notice....What's KVLY/XJB's plan if they have a transmitter fail

What is the cheapest cable package you can get and still get those channels?

For all the ones marked "free" I think the best you can do is the "Cable + Digital" package, which is $79/month ($66/month for the first six months for new customers). This includes the set-top box needed to get all the HD channels (it's a DVR, which I believe is the only HD boxes they have anymore).

The ones marked "free/clear" I believe you can get with pretty much any package, but you'll need a QAM tuner capable of decoding the channels since you won't get the HD receiver with just basic cable. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that - I thought I heard this was true but it may have changed.

Inexplicably, HGTV-HD and Food Network-HD are in their own tier for $5 more per month (maybe $10? I don't have this package). I think they'll probably revamp their HD tiers after they get all the channels added.

HBO-HD you get if you subscribe to the HBO package. Showtime-HD and TMC-HD you get if you subscribe to the Showtime package. There's no way to get just the HD versions of these channels. You'll need the HD receiver to get these channels as well, so you'll need at least the $79 package from the first paragraph plus the cost for the premium channel package(s).