Fargo, ND - HDTV - Page 6

Me too. I also don't have an OTA setup. From what has been said, it sounds like CableOne has plans to pick them up (???), but wether or not that will be before they go full time with their signal?? I sure hope they put them on, even it is just for prime time. Something is better than nothing.

Interesting quote on the compression through dish. I'm assuming that he's talking about the SD picture that Dish Network and DirecTV recently picked up. I can see where he would say that - the dish services compress the crap out of EVERYTHING.

What I don't understand is how he jumps from that to the same conclusion on the signal via Cable One. I would think that one of the obvious advantages of cable over dish with respect to this matter would be that they wouldn't compress as much...

Now, whether or not Cable One indeed compresses is or not remains to be seen - I know that the PPTV signal seems to be compressed to me, but I don't think that I've seen any other hints of that on the other stations (HBO, ESPN, etc.). But then again I don't have anything that can measure bitrate either...

Since I'm afraid to go up on my roof, I'm definitely taking a wait and see on the OTA vs. Cable for now (not to mention the costs...)

Thanks for the info BG - hopefully we'll get to see the Joey season premier in glorious HD this year!

sped

Hi, guys. I've been perusing this thread for awhile and thought I'd chime in. I also observed KVLY-HD last night and was quite impressed with the picture. The "Tonight Show" was stunning. Though I am only using an LG OTA receiver with a Zenith silver sensor up in the attic, I had few episodes of "no signal"(I am in the Lindenwood Park area). I am, however, glad to hear that the transmission signal will be increased, as any signal dropout is annoying.
Any idea when KXJB-HD will be up? Are they still shooting for September, or has KVLY's delay pushed them back too?

Even with a cheap $20 indoor antenna I am picking up the signal without any glitching or lagging Hopefully they can get a CBS signal up soon for football!

So does anyone have a firm commitment from CableOne on when they will pick up the HD feeds for KVLY and KXJB? I wonder if they will charge CableOne for them? I'm sure if they do it'll get passed down to the consumer. Now if we can get FOX to get off their butts...WDAY is just a lost cause I think.

The new I-guide is very nice. A few gripes: 30 sec. skip is gone. Major bummer. You can't add it back in with the remote codes either; it's disabled in the firmware. The firewire port is also disabled in the firmware, so there's no way to capture the video to a PC per that mega long thread on this board.

Another complaint: Why are they giving out universal remotes that don't even have buttons for some of functions of the 6412, i.e. 30 sec. skip (while it was there) and the swap command? Good thing I found them in the database for my harmony remote.

One more note of interest to 6412 owners if you don't already know: You can go into diagnostics mode by powering off the unit and then pressing the select or ok button within 2 seconds. All kinds of good info in there like signal strengths, hardware info, and more.

Rod

I just sent CableOne an email, asking when they are planning to pickup KVLY's HD signal. Being KVLY is still "Testing", who knows when they might put them on. When I get a response, I'll let ya know. At least it will show CableOne that there is a viewer insterest in them offering it.

"We are also going to be the only providor of local channels in HD. Right now we have an offer in with KVLY to add as a HD channel."

This is an email I got back from cableone... good news for those who can't get locals OTA. I'm pretty much set on switching over to Direct TV to be able to watch some NHL in HD.

Sounds good. I recevied a response back from CableOne also, and they stated the same thing. Now, let's hope KVLY plays nice, and quickly allows CableOne to add their HD signal to cable.

Can someone ask someone at KVLY about their status on getting on CableOne? From my understanding they just have to run the signal over to CableOne and CableOne is already equipped to send that out to us, but both sides need to agree on a contract and stuff I'm sure.

Wow- progress.

Thanks to all for keeping track of the progress of the local affiliates. Almost time to go get that new rooftop antenna.

Dare we hope that if ABC gets the broadcast rights to the 2016 Summer Olympics that WDAY might be ready to show it to us in HD??

Hey there,

Anyone in Grand Forks able to pick up a signal? I'd rather get an indoor antenna than an outdoor.

J-

GFJay,

I'm in GF and the only thing I've been able to get OTA is PBSHD Channel 16.1. I'm using a powered RCA VHF/UHF indoor antenna from BestBuy. Towers are too far for KVLY and KXJB(47 miles) so I'm looking closely at the Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna. No pre-amp to start with. Sounds like it will pick up signals roughly 50 miles away and has gotten pretty good reviews from this site. I plan on trying it in my attic and then possibly outdoor if I have to.

Trap

If anyone is/was watching, is/was KVLY showing the nascar race in HD? I don't have an OTA setup, and was just wondering. Also, is there any new word from KVLY, on them allowing their HD signal to be added to cable?

I was wondering if anyone can tell me if PBS is still in HD over CableOne. I was previously picking it up with my Fusion card in my HTPC but it seems to disappeared.

As a side note, I was able to pick up a number HBO channels last weekend during the free promo, but not the HD channel. For about a week in July I was getting all of the premium channels in HD but it looks CableOne is encrypting more channels.

I am still getting PBS (KFME) in HD on CableONE. I have a digital box (6412), so I am not sure on the encryption of the HD channels.

I received the HBO preview (Channel 450) in HD last weekend and was watching KFME yesterday in HD as well.

Did anyone tune into the ESPN-HD Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Ravens-Colts game tonight? There was constant audio dropouts and blocking/stuttering of the picture. Just want to be sure someone else experienced this before I call to investigate. I'm guessing it will be beyond CableOne's control though as the other HD channels were fine.

Cheers!

I also was able to watch HBOHD on channel 450 during the free preview, and I can still see PBS HD on channel 470.

I was watching some of the game last night on ESPN HD and I only noticed one dropout/stutter, but I didn't watch a lot of the game. I did watch a fair amount of the second half, but very little of the first half, and only noticed one problem with the signal.

Are all Fargo digital OTA channels UHF?

Yes they are - you can go to www.antennaweb.org and see the details for each station.

I watched a lot of the game last night on ESPN-HD, and only had a couple audio dropouts and video blocking.

Interesting... thanks for the feedback on the ESPN-HD dropouts and blocking. Sounds like I need to investigate why I might be getting those when no one else seems to.

Cheers! Go Vikes!!

Thanks for the info. Does anyone get PBS-HD without a cable box of some sort? If so, what channel is it on?

Just a heads up for everyone getting HDTV from Cableone - Motorola has come out with a new version of the HDTV DVR that we all use (the 6412). I went in today to swap out my old box (I was going to do this anyway - it would reset occasionally and the DVR wouldn't work anymore) and the replacement they gave me was one of the new boxes. These are called the "Phase 3" and can be clearly identified because they say "6412 III" on the front of the box (the old ones didn't have any model number information on the front)

The differences are as follows:
HDMI output instead of DVI
SATA connector for external hard drive (pretty sure this is not active, but I have no way to test it)
Improved MPEG2 encoder for better picture quality on SD channels
Added fan underneath the unit for cooling
USB 2.0 connection (the old one had USB 1.0 or firewire?)
RF output (not 100% sure what this means)

Does anyone else have this new box? Any thoughts? I'll hook mine up tonight and post back what I find out.

My first thoughts on the new box:

The picture quality on analog channels is a LOT better. I didn't really notice a difference between it and the straight feed to the TV anymore - it used to be a very noticeable difference.

I haven't done much else with it, but I do have an HDMI cable coming in the mail and I might try that instead of component video.

The RF output is an output for coax cable - I'm not sure yet if this is a passthrough or if it sends the channel you have tuned on the box over channel 3 or something.

Anyone here using Media Center to view ATSC OTA?

It works great for PBS, WDAY, KVRR but KVLY is giving me some issues. I can tune to UHF 44 via my set top box just fine as well as using the app that came with my Fusion card. MCE however doesn't like how KVLY is sending the signal. Specifically, they're broadcasting on frequency 44 but are not sending any major/minor information. In Media Center you need to specify major/minor/frequency. The only way I can get a signal is if major/minor=-1 and frequency=44. However, Media Center won't let me specify -1 as a value for major/minor so it doesn't work.

KVRR uses 19.1 (frequency 19)
KFME is 13.2 (frequency 23)
WDAY is 6.1 (frequency 21)
It seems however that KVLY is NOT 44.1 (frequency 44) as antennaweb.org suggests.

Don't know Paulbram but please keep reporting your findings. My next purchase is a rooftop antenna and an ATSC card for the MCE box.

Cheers!

That is good news puck71. I have the original Moto HD box (non DVR model) from CableOne and have been disappointed with the SD picture quality compared to the old black digital Moto box. I would definitely upgrade if I knew there would be improved SD PQ as the DVR function is not that big a deal for me.

Does your display device have HDMI on it or are you getting an HDMI-DVI cable?

Cheers!