Fargo, ND - HDTV - Page 55

If you had gone with DISH Network you would have HD locals.

Not sounding rude at all. An indoor antenna should work? That would be fantastic. I looked at a site the told me how far away the towers were, and a the farthest was something like 41.9 miles, the rest were 20 some. I really had no idea what was close and what was far.

My understanding is that KBRR would also require VHF but doesn't currently broadcast in HD, correct? I think I'll test out the UHF first since it should pick up the most channels, so do I just need to grab a multidirectional indoor UHF antenna? This is all brand new to me.



Yeah, I found that out the day after my DirectTV was set up. Such is life, should have done more research. Do you happen to know the reason Dish Network offers local HD and Direct TV doesn't? Just wondering if I should ever expect them to become available.

No idea. I work at a TV station in the Duluth market, which has the same HD satellite situation as Fargo. DirecTV apparently plans to add HD locals here (and presumably there, too) but they haven't set a date.

I have always operated under this assumption as well, although I found the case to be quite opposite while watching Sunday night's football game on NBC. The picture quality I was getting over the air from KVLY was horrible. I switched over to the east coast NBC feed on DirecTV and the picture was fine. I do know what the story was there, but I sure was glad to have that satellite channel to fall back on.

Dish just happened to get to them first. I'm sure DirecTV will eventually, but I remember seeing posts in this very thread a couple years ago now saying they were right around the corner. Ha!

How is it that you get the east coast channel? When I go to it it is greyed out and if I try to choose it it brings up a message to call support with message 721.

Ditto, it's been a while since I tried, but DTV said I could apply for waivers (correct term?) from the local stations. I did, and they were denied... If you're getting the national feed you're very lucky...

Indeed, I am lucky. I got the east code feeds when DirecTV first started offering HD broadcasts and the only local markets available were New York and LA. Everyone else got the distant feeds, if their locals were O&O stations, of which CBS, FOX and NBC were for me at the time. DirecTV has just failed to take them away. I keep thinking they will, but I keep getting them.

Luckily for me, since I don't get ABC via DirecTV, WDAY is about the easiest station to pick up here in south Fargo. If it wasn't for ABC, though, I wouldn't even mess with antennas. I look forward to all the locals being available over the dish.

I'd like to hear others' opinions on this as well - I find that especially on sports programming KVLY and KX4 (same company coincidentally) look HORRIBLE. Especially on fast moving shots and those "swipe graphics" (like the NBC logo swooshing across the screen) are pixelated like CRAZY. It looks WAY worse than Fox or ABC (or ESPN on DirectTV, etc.).

I have OTA going into my DirecTV box (AM-21) and it annoys me like crazy. I think i've noticed when I had my antenna hooked up directly to my media center and TV as well.

For some reason I kind of assumed that it was a 1080i vs. 720p thing (isn't Fox and ABC 720p?) but now that I think about it, it can't be THAT bad, right?

It wouldn't surprise me that they might compress it because I know that our glorious NBC and CBS station owners are pretty much idiots - but what would be the advantage of compressing (or manipulating) OTA HD programming? Or do they just have bad equipment that's screwing it up?

I know that the cheapskates refuse to up the NBC signal strength as well - even though it's on the same tower as their CBS signal...

So others have complaints about their NBC and CBS OTA, especially with sports programming?

I tuned in again on Sunday night and again, the picture quality on KVLY was horrible. Switching over to the east coast feed, the picture was fine, so it definitely seems to be something that KVLY is doing wrong. Had it not been for the other channel, I likely would have stayed upstairs and watched the game on our SDTV, which is really saying something about how bad the HDTV broadcast was.

Looks like Midco is dropping HDNet and HDNet Movies on Dec. 31st, and adding Spike HD and Science Channel HD on Jan. 5th.

We have now come to the end of calendar year 2009.
I would like to ask the question, is KBRR up and running in full hd yet? Lots of bowl games on in the next week or so. Hasn't been an issue lately cause the Vikings have mostly been on at night.

Has KBRR made ANY progress?

While I like getting Spike HD, I'll miss HDNet Movies. Any commercial-free movie channels were welcomed by me.

On a related note, I officially cancelled CableONE today and returned my trusty DVR. I had Midco and CableONE both connected for awhile, but I emptied my CableONE DVR and finally got everything packed up and returned. I may go back to them eventually - how long do I have to wait to qualify for their new customer promos?

When will they start broadcasting? I see they have a "This TV" coming soon on the station now.

Yep - again last night as well - same symptoms (too much pixelation on fast-moving busy shots). I didn't watch the CBS game to see if that was similar as well...

Would be nice to have some good NBC for the Olympics coming up...

I only have an antenna, no satellite. I have no problems with KVLY or KXJB. They're perfect........no pixelation like you're talking about.

Also, I heard Charley Johnson on the channel 4 news tonight answering questions. He said "This TV" will begin broadcasting tomorrow. It will have movies and old TV programs, but he said they'll also do some local sports programming. He mentioned they would be airing the Concordia games on Jan. 16th. He also said they'd be looking to do more local sports progrramming. I like that idea!

Johnson also said they are working on getting a substation for channel 4, too.

I hear they're looking into getting My Network TV for 4.2

KCPM 27 is the market's affiliate, but they do not have an OTA signal (they're on cable on channel 9 in GF and Fargo) due to a lack of money and they seem to want to pull the plug completely, shut off, and turn in the license.

Heck, KCPM was running an illegal analog signal on 27 past the DTV transition on June 12 (I saw the analog signal in July).

I know that there has been much discussion about sports and fast moving images on 720p vs. 1080i - 720p (Fox, ABC, ESPN standards) appears to handle motion much better than 1080i (NBC, CBS, PBS standards). I know there was a recommendation a few years ago that stations move between 1080i for movies and 720p for sports, but although technically possible in ATSC standards, dynamically changing encoding is beyond the hardware capabilities and technical staff knowhow of most stations outside of the largest markets.

I wonder if any of the cablecos will pick up this new subchannel?

I live on the southend of Grand Forks. Until about two weeks ago I could pick up KXJB 4-1, WDAY 6-1, and KVLY 11-1 on my outdoor OTA antenna. Now 4-1 and 11-1 work great but WDAY 6-1 shows little to no reception. Does anyone know if something has changed with WDAY ?? Thanks for the help.

Could've been the blizzard?

I live on the south end as well and the VHF/UHF rooftop antenna still picks up WDAY and KFME for the most part. I don't watch PBS very often (if I do I usually watch the local KCGE 16 or KGFE on cable) and for ABC I usually watch WDAZ. I have Midcontinent cable, but I don't have digital cable or satellite for now (we're getting digital cable this summer), so I use OTA for HDTV and hoping KBRR goes HD sooner or later.

I was looking at antennaweb.org, and WDAY wasn`t listed on the map when I put in my address, that`s why I was wondering if something had been changed maybe with the towers` location? It shows WDAZ to the NW of me, where I would have to have a rotator or another antenna in that direction. I have Direct TV, so no local HD.

Thanks for the help, Steve

Here is WDAY-DT's coverage area according to the FCC:

I occasionally get them with an indoor antenna in East Grand Forks...You may want to also check your location with http://www.tvfool.com/ as they seem a little more accurate than antennaweb

Thanks very much for your help! I must be having an issue on my end.

I was watching the KVLY news the day that the subchannel started up, and they did make reference to cable companies picking it up. They didn't say it was a done deal or anything, but it sounded like there were discussions going on.

I see Midcontinent has added it on channel 166 in Moorhead.

What format is the East Coast feed in 1080i, 720p, 1080p?
Again for high motion, 720p seems to blow the socks off of 1080i

The affiliates don't set that. ESPN, FOX, and ABC are 720p; NBC and CBS are 1080i. No networks are 1080p as that would take twice as much bandwidth. And yes 720p is generally accepted as better than 1080i for fast motion - which is why ESPN uses it. But there are other factors than just that. I haven't had any problems with KVLY on cable, so I don't know why the broadcast signal would be bad.

I just have over the air TV and I have no problems with KVLY or KXJB. All of the high definition broadcasts, no matter which local station is airing it, have looked great.

Sometimes, some of the SD broadcasts have looked bad on the TV, but everything in HD has been great. The sound has been best on the CBS broadcasts, for some reason.

This may not be the best place to ask this but would anyone from the Fargo/Moorhead or even up to Grand Forks be up for a AVS get together? I don't see alot of F/M people posting in other areas here so I thought I would ask here. I know that some of the home theater people get together now and again to show of each other's theater setups. So it could be something like that or more informal at some member's home or some restaurant/bar. What do you guys think?