Jackson / Meridian, MS - HDTV - Page 2

any of you guys in brandon/reservoir/castlewoods area? if so, what OTA antenna are you using? i'm thinking of putting a channelmaster 4228 in my attic. do i need a preamp with this thing?

The sound has been out on my local high definition abc channel. There is no sound on tonights episode of Lost and there was no sound on last nights episode of According to Jim.

I sent WAPT an email about the sound issue, but got no response(probably did'nt get to the right person).

Hi guys... great to see some folks from MS on here. I'm in Meridian and we only have 2 local HD stations so far (ABC and PBS). Sometimes I can pick up CBS HD out of Columbus. I am working on putting up a bigger antenna with a better preamp so hopefully I can pull in Columbus better as well as pick up Jackson and/or Hattiesburg stations. Once you start watching HD, you are hooked!

I have the same issues with my local stations here that you guys have... sometimes no audio, or only partial audio, or an SD transmission when I know its coming HD from the network.

Glad to see the Jackson thread!!! Looking into the various HD options having recently purchased a HD DLP (Benq 6200). Spent half an hour on the phone with the directtv folks today. They offered me the HD box with OTA tuner for a reduced price of $200. Considering I've been a 'client' of theirs since 2000, I thought they could do better. I saw somebody in this thread mention a $99 promo. I'd jump at that in a heartbeat if only to get the OTA tuner! From what I've heard, OTA actually has the best picture quality of either satellite or cable because of less (no?) compression issues. Is that your experience?

I noticed on the NAB site (nat'l assn of broadcasters) that all Jackson's local stations are HD ready. Good to see that is 'mostly' the case from reading here!

My Benq DLP was purchased sight unseen (I'd never seen ANY DLP front projector up until I received mine!). I was familiar with the LCD projectors and never that impressed with the contrast ratio. Lots of folks fret over the light control issues of front projection. All I can say is that I'm running at 80" most of the time and paid under $1200 for my projector. A similar sized plasma is $40k. You can buy a lot of nice drapes/curtains etc. for the difference!

According to directtv, they do not have an hd equipped receiver with tivo capability. That's kind of depressing. Anyway, glad to know there are a few of us in the Jackson area going HD. Safety in numbers or misery loves company. Hopefully the former.

Will update the group as/when I make my final tuner decision. Good luck to all.

Enjoy.

I guess it might pay to have a secondary audio source (non-hd) for some of those football games. Maybe a radio station feed or something? Surely, somebody else must be doing this? Have to be more exciting than just crowd noise.

Enjoy.

Got another puzzle piece last nite at Wal Mart. The USDTV OTA HD receiver for $200. Hooked up to cheap rabbit ear antenna. Picked up four HD signals. Two PBS, CBS and ABC.

Set the receiver to output to 1080i, hooked up to my Benq PB 6200 DLP.

Fantastic.

Looking forward to the premiere of Amazing Race this evening.

Enjoy.

I did get the tuner setup before the game. Basically, the OTA HD tuner ran thru a channel scan and only found channel 16. When I went to look at the station, I could see it was Wheel of Fortune; digital, but not HD. I could tell it was digital because the 'pixellation' on 'loss of signal strength' was obvious at times (that $7 antenna...lol). Then I moved the antenna about and re-scanned (option: add to existing channels...so as not to lose channel 16 which I had already acquired). At that point, I ended up with FOUR (the two PBS, CBS and ABC).

Now, I notice a 'setup' button on the remote (of course the instruction manual is still in it's original packing.....lol). I hit the setup button and end up on a menu for what type HD you want. Well, isn't 1080i the bomb? I go straight for it, since I've read on avsforum that folks often have a hard time with that one. After choosing 1080i, I get prompted for 4:3 or 16:9 and choose 16:9. I change the input on my Benq to 16:9 (thru the onscreen menu). Voila. By now it's game time.

Totally awesome. I did note that the ads looked to be HD but not widescreen, which was kinda different. But whenever the game was on, it was wall to wall and very good quality. I'd say about 10-15% (subjective I know) better than DVD? Is that your experience as well? Jumped around a lot and ended up watching a fair amount of PBS. I did notice that their special on the Dead Sea appeared to be of lesser quality (upconverted stuff?) than the football game, but still pretty good. I could see a little pixellation on the PBS show at times when motion was involved. Pretty sure it had to do with the source material they were using. It's like when I got my first CD player (very early adopter). I found out that not all CD's are created equal. There were/are? some CD's that made my expensive stereo equipment sound like a bad am radio. Guess it'll be the same with the video. Now that I've reached near perfection in the equipment I own, it'll be easier to see where source material is subpar. I'd rather it be like this than it was before. Very happy. SO SO looking forward to tonite's Amazing Race. IMHO that show is MADE FOR HD.

so what channels is Jackson broadcasting?

i just hooked up a zenith silver sensor with no preamp to my hd tivo in brandon mississippi. i'm able to get 90% signal strength on ABC and 70% signal strength on CBS. can't really get anything on NBC. i don't care about PBS, but WB won't lock in.

will a preamp help my situation?

From south Jackson, using the cheapest rabbit ears that Walmart sells I can get ABC, CBS and two PBS channels. That's it.

I'll be getting a decent outside antenna one of these days and I'll let you guys know if that changes anything. I think there are more stations out there than I am getting right now, but being an early adopter isn't without it's problems.


Enjoy.

has anyone in the jackson area here gotten their hdtv's ISF calibrated? i've got a toshiba 62hmx84 and Avia just isn't doing it for me. i wanted to see what it might cost and if there was anyone in the area that could calibrate my set. thanks guys...

http://www.coastcal.com/


Pretty good guy out of Gulfport. I've met him, but not seen his work. He get's pretty good reviews though, and is fairly resonable..

Kevin D.

With the waiver, I just noticed I'm receiving fox hd new york feed with directv on channel 88 I think.

I requested the waiver through directv about 2 months ago. I simply told them that I could not pick up hd fox over my antenna (ofcourse its not even broadcasting locally yet). -- I was receiving both fox feeds but they dropped one feed after sending me a card telling me that after an audit they realized I was paying for only one feed. They offered to let me keep both feeds for a dollar more a month, but I never sent the card back.

I was nice to watch the giants today in high definition on 88, so much better than the saints/falcons on fox 35. (One other reason I hope they don't change policy either is because I can view other nfl games on the alternate feeds). Although I thought the colts game on 12.1 looked slightly better than the fox hd game, probably due to field conditions.

Spoke to WLBT the other day & they told me they would be up in Q1 of 2005 (that means now). They said it would be more toward the end of Q1...They are hoping around March.

so in jackson, ms, is it possible at all for me to be able to watch the superbowl in HDTV? i have directv, the hd package, and an OTA antenna.

just moved here a few months ago. quick question, can anyone rec. a good tv technician? need to get my loewe worked on.