Rochester, NY - HDTV - Page 49

Last Night & Tonight WUHF SD & HD was blacked out when they aired Fox Programming because i saw the message in the attached picture on WUHF both nights. It's not a big problem for me because i normally watch Fox on WUTV. Maybe Sinclair decided to blackout Fox Programming on WUHF in areas that also get WUTV for a reason i don't know. I'll send TW an e-mail & find out.

Ah, I think that I know what is going on. Cable has to comply with an FCC "non-duplication" rule - meaning they can't deliver duplicate programming to a customer. Often this rule is ignored, sometimes because two stations with the same network have overlapping primary coverage. It looks like Sinclair (who owns the Fox stations in both Buffalo & Rochester) is giving TW a hard time over this rule. Perhaps as payback for when TW threatened to import FOX programming when was about to pull their programming from TW. If a local station pulls it's programming from cable, TW feels that it is then free to import that network programming from out of town. It never came to that here, but TW was doing that in other areas of NY.

I suspect another reason is that they want you in the habit to watch WUTV for when sweeps come around.

That Explains the non-duplication message i keep seeing on WUHF when they air Fox Shows. It's a good thing Sinclair choose to blackout WUHF instead of WUTV because my dvr only gets WUHF in SD but i do get WUTV in HD so they chose to blackout the right station. Thanks for explaining the FCC non- duplication rule dave. I also beleive Sinclair is using this rule to get payback from TWC.

The problem is that TW has not at all been clear about this issue - particularly in making clear in the notices who would be affected & HOW they woulld be effected. For example, the link to the notice includes MONROE county - the implication is that this programming would be blacked out in ROCHESTER!!

TW is just plain sloppy (or should I say that they really don't apparently give a F***) about many business practices!!

I's agree with that statement, But since TWC is essentially a monopoly (I know it's not really but close enough for them), they act like they are because they feel they can.

Well, to be honest, I've found that this behavior is typical of most all cable companies. My two daughters live in Comcast (Comcrap) and Verizon FiOS areas. Frankly, TW is not as bad as those two. Some of that may be the areas (Maryland and Minnesota) but some is the company. I'd rate (worst to best) them: Comcrap, Verizon, TW. BTW: Daughter in Maryland has choice of Verizon or Comcrap. They used to have Comcrap, but switched last year to FiOS. While that move was a improvement, but it still is not up to TW.

I just wish that TW would get their act together.

You're likely correct that most cable companies -- heck most large, almost-monopolistic companies are that way. You're also probably correct that TW isn't among the worst of them.

So if i decided to get a cable box for my Den TV or replace the HD DVR i have now TW won't let me self-install it. I hope they go back to their Old Installation Policy because i don't like their New Installation Policy.

It wasn't really clear from lokilarry's post to what extent the policy applies. Remember, he was going from "basic" cable to digital service - so there could be lots of areas that could be a trouble spot. I would suspect that simply swapping one DVR for another would not require a tech visit, but adding a STB to an outlet previously used for basic cable would need a tech to assure that that branch was meeting spec.

Frankly, it is always good to have a tech check things out. You'd be surprised how much trouble a poor ground can cause.

Just as a follow up... Roadrunner service has been excellent here in Webster since the D3 upgrade took place. We have had a few outages, but I owe that to them getting things adjusted a little. The outages themselves were very brief. Service has been steady here since last Friday.

Webster got DOCSIS 3.0 cuz the node "may" have been "slightly" over-subscribed, I've heard. >.>

Yes. The nodes were slightly over-subscribed. But the whole local Time Warner service area is being upgraded to D3. Webster was upgraded first. Pretty soon the ads will start for the faster speed service . 30/5 for $20 more a month than standard RR service.

Anyone else had their 8, 10, 13, 13.2, 31 go out early in the am?

Are you using an antenna or cable? If your using cable none of my locals went out this morning.

On cable, issues like this are usually very local (problem in your local node). It would help if you included your location in your profile.

I was at a friend's last night and noticed that her dvr only had 3 ff speeds. It was an 8300 hdc, my 8300 hd had 3 at first after the software change, but they added the 4th later. It that normal for the hdc?

The 8300HDC and the 8300HD have software packages that are similar on the outside (the interface) but are completely different in structure. The "C" versions use ODN (OCAP Digital Navigator), which is Java based, while non-"C" versions use MDN (Mystro Digital Navigator). I also have MDN and have the 4th speed, but I am not sure about ODN.

ODN does not have the 4th FFW speed.

Anyhow, good news, more HDs appear to be coming. BET HD, Gol TV HD, Fox Soccer Channel HD and Game 2 HD are listed to be added on May 10th on the Buffalo Legal Notices page, so we'll probably see them as well.

Wow, adding 2 soccer channels at the end of the soccer season, not good timing. Finally the soccer channels I've been waiting for for years! Thanks for the info.

Hi. I used to check the HDTV Rochester site for info but it seems to be gone - so I found this great site! I have a few questions for the tech folks here.

I have TWC Digital/HD package with a HD DVR in my family room. In my bedroom I have a newer LCD HDTV (no box) so I get the standard channels I guess. If I enter channel "8-1" I THINK I get the HD version of chennel 8 (CBS ?) and so on for the network channels.

1. Where do I find a list of other HD channels I can get via the regular COAX cable and my digital tuner? Is this what QAM is?

OK, my kids now have a HD Projector for their basement "home theater" setup - just got it, used, good picture IMO, has component and VGA inputs. We can run the coax thru the older TV down there and use component output to the projector for non-hd TV.

2. How we get HD channels for that system? Do I need a digital tuner of some sort I assume? Are there inexpensive tuners or DVD palyers (with tuner) that could do the same as my bedroom set - get the channels like 8-1 and others?

3. What about for HDTV from the computer/internet? I assume we could use a HD tuner thru USB maybe ? Any suggestions?

Thanks a ton. Great site.

QAM is the method used for digital cable channels. They can fit 2-3 HD channels or 12-16 SD channels (or some combination) on one QAM. While the actual QAM channel numbers (like 93-8) can be confusing, modern HD TVs take advantage of a signal embedded in the QAM bit stream called PSIP. The PSIP contains the virtual channel information so you see 8-1 instead of 93-8.
TW screws around with the QAM assignments once in a while, so if channels disappear a re-scan is in order.

TW encrypts most of the "cable" channels (like CNN) so you can't get them without a box. They also use a technique called SDV on many of the HD channels, that also requires a box to receive.

There were a bunch of these around 8 years or so ago, but they have pretty much disappeared from the market. The best solution is to "spring" for a TW cable box for this set-up.

I assume that we are talking about the theater. Yes, but getting something with component output might be a challenge.

Welcome!
As Dave mentioned, these have pretty much disappeared from the market. I do have one that I'm no longer using and would consider selling. LG LST-3510a combo HD tuner and upscaling DVD player. I can provide more details if you are interested. Either way, good luck!

-Dave

I also have that one (but it is in use). It is not a modern QAM tuner in that it does not decode the PSIP data (so channels show up as 93-8 instead of 8-1) and it has issues with WHAM HD (86-2) with that channel frequently dropping out (I believe the issue is that WHAM's digital bit stream is interrupted when they switch from network to local and the LG switches to the next bitstream on that QAM, 86-3 {WXXI HD} when that happens). It has component, DVI & RGB video outputs _ both coax & optical digital audio outputs.

Yeah, I'd be interested in your LG LST-3510a. I checked on them a bit and it seems like it would do what I want. Does it show QAM as the "regular" channel with a "-1" input as in "8-1" or does it find QAM on the somewhat randon channels? I'd be using a cable coax feed as it's in the basement and I don't want to screw around with a HD antenna installation.

What about a tuner/hard drive recorder type combo? Do those exist? Thx.

Actually, the LST-3510a can do either Over The Air (ATSC) digital OR QAM (take your pick when setting up). It will show the channels as follows:
86-1 WUHF HD
86-2 WHAM HD
86-3 WXXI HD
93-8 WROC HD
93-10 WHEC HD
115-2 WHAM DT2 (CW HD0
plus a bunch of SD channels


TiVo. Sony also made one a while ago

Heh, Dave H is a lot faster on the draw than I am! He's given you most (all?) of the answers. As mentioned, it reads the obscure (93-6), not PSIP, channel code when connected to TWC basic cable. I haven't used mine in a while. Sometimes it was better at finding stations than my Panny TV's tuner (WXXI in particular when TWC kept screwing around with it), which is the main reason I kept it around. But lately TWC channels have been stable. Feel free to PM me.


-Dave

I just read the Legal Notice for Batavia Area & it says WUHF will be removed from the channel lineup in Genesee/Wyoming & Orleans Counties on May 17th. Does anybody have any idea why TW would do this. I know i can still watch Fox on WUTV but i don't want to loose WUHF. I have a funny felling sinclair is forcing TW to remove WUHF from batavia area lineups.

Where is this different from the discussion that we had earlier?

I'm not sure if the WUHF Blackout in batavia is related to the station being removed from my lineup but i'm assuming sinclair choose to have WUHF removed instead of using a blackout or they only want us to get one Fox station since they own both WUTV & WUHF. Here's a link to the Legal notice if you want to see it for yourself.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Media...ce_Batavia.pdf

So I believe that you answered your own question.