Sacramento, CA - OTA - Page 204

Jericho series finale is in SD

Boo!!

Very blurry SD!

So what the heck happened to the series finale of Jericho on Comcast tonight? It was supposed to be in HD, but appeared only in very, very fuzzy SD. Was it more KOVR equipment problems, was someone asleep at the switch, was their a network feed problem or was this more Comcast incompetence?

Whatever the answer, I am deeply disappointed. After this, the series cancellation, and the poor KOVR picture quality during the past year, we won't be making a time commitment to another CBS series anytime soon.

The propagation gods smiled on me just enough and I was able to watch it on KION in HD during the standard west coast feed.

Ok, how in the world did you figure out how to do this? I mean, finding where vista media center stores these prefs in markup language is one thing, but finding the physical frequencies?

I also first had these problems last week, and thought my antenna was just dying since it wasn't getting better, and I had also lost Fox today. So I bought a new antenna with amplification, but of course that didn't fix it because the mappings were wrong. Any way to stay on top of this in the future?

Thanks!

Bob,

What was up last night? NCIS was in HD yet JEricho was in SD (and not great at that). THis was the one show I was really looking forward to.

S~

I get KOVR through HD OTA, so it wasn't just Comcast, and according to Calaveras there was at least one other broadcaster that had it in HD, so I'm guessing the issues are over at KOVR.

As a sidenote, I do also get the macroblocking artifacts that crop up occasionally so those are not issues with comcast/directTV/Dish either.

From many years of following this and other discussion forums. The AVS Forums in particular contains a wealth of knowledge and up to date information.

I started using HTPC HD tuners in 2002. Knowledge of the various station frequencies was necessary to properly configure the software drivers. I got most of the data from the http://www.100000watts.com/ site.

Well, I posted that about 30 minutes after I found your solution and that it worked. It was so late at night I hadn't checked around. But it sure seemed like a miracle at the time after buying a new antenna and futzing around for an hour before giving google a shot! I'm just glad you live in my area....

Then today I found this guy's article: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...e_dec2004.mspx

Nice. The only thing unanswered for me is: Why would media center's guide data suddenly get bad physical channel info? I was considering just overriding all the channels with the prefs file just to keep them correct, but don't know if this is absolutely necessary.

Also, are there any minor channels in our area besides the .1's? I thought I remember that KCRA had a weather specific one, and Fox (used to?) broadcast "The Tube" on a minor channel. Was going to play with this tonight now that I know how to add them, but wondered if anyone compiled a list first?

Thanks!

Ok, so I just found this info on rabbitears.info:

#020 Sacramento, California
03-1 35.1 1080i KCRA-DT ------- NBC
03-2 35.2 480i- ....... ------- WeatherPlus
06-1 53.1 1080i KVIE-DT ------- PBS-HD
06-2 53.2 480i- ....... ------- PBS
06-3 53.3 480i- ....... ------- V-Me
10-1 61.1 720p- KXTV-DT ------- ABC
10-2 61.2 480i- ....... ------- AccuWeather
13-1 25.1 1080i KOVR-DT ------- CBS
19-1 18.1 480i- KUVS-DT ------- Univision
23-1 15.1 480i- KBSV-DT ------- Ethnic
29-1 48.1 480i- KSPX-DT ------- ION
29-2 48.2 480i- ....... ------- Qubo
29-3 48.3 480i- ....... ------- ION Life
29-4 48.4 480i- ....... ------- Worship.Net
31-1 21.1 1080i KMAX-DT ------- CW-
40-1 55.1 720p- KTXL-DT ------- FOX
58-1 46.1 720p- KQCA-DT ------- MyN
64-1 62.1 480i- KTFK-DT ------- TeleFutura


Question: Does the guide data come in for these subchannels, particularly on Vista Media Center? In particular, I'm hoping for Qubo guide data since it might be a good source for kids programs without interwoven commercials (similar to Noggin which is only on digital cable). I'm going to play with it tonight, but drafting off others' research is always a nice jumpstart....

Thanks!

I'm not terribly familiar with VMC, but I can tell you that Tribune Media Services does have guide data for qubo, and it showed up for me with both a TivoHD as well as a Mac EyeTV tuner. So, if VMC uses Tribune for their listings, qubo will have full listings.

Wow, I may have found my answer. This thread (http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/1/2...howThread.aspx) on The Green Button is all about how Media Center lacks subchannel guide data. They really gang up on the a poor program manager at MS, just because they aren't getting what they want, and think they know how a large company should work. I only feel bad for her because I know the feeling working for the largest chip company in the world, but I digress...

I can see that there are workarounds for stations like KVIE2, which is on 6.2, because I can add it into the channel list, and then add listings from comcast channel 7 onto Media Center's channel 1062. BUT - I can't do the same for Qubo, since that is not carried on Comcast (digital or analog). That was part of the reason I really wanted it in media center, just because I don't have it on my DVR, and I can schedule some kid stuff on the PC without clogging my DVR.

By the way, Vista Media Center *does* use Tribune data, but JessZahn (at The Green Button) says that Tribune doesn't give MS the subchannel guide data, so MS has no data to send out. It's a known flaw, but low in the overall [corporate] priority list.

Lay's?

Well played. Though, shouldn't that be Frito-Lay? Being so close to Modesto you should know that.

I was able to add all my subchannels last night in Vista Media Center, but I spent so much time making tiny adjustments on my antenna to get every channel into "green" strength that I didn't get much time to experiment with guide data.

I'd like to try the hack to get all the guide data direct from zap2it, but the instructions aren't quite clear as to what to put in the "callsign" field versus the "userAssignedName" field to get it to match up. I did notice that just letting media center add the channel, like subchannel 29.2, it will call it KSPX-DT2. On Zap2it, it looks like they list them this way but without the "-". Even if I have media center add it under a name like "qubo", it will still call it "qubo-DT" so I'm not sure if I'll ever get it to match up with the guide, and I'm not sure how those extra tags in the atscprefs.xml even get used....

I'll just have to try some more experiments tonight.

Looks like I don't need to waste my time with experiments. The "hack" only works for stations like PBS and other networks, but not the ION/Pax/Qubo channels. I'll summarize incase anyone with Vista Media Center has the same issue:

1. The "hack" is to simply get guide data for a full digital cable band in your area, and assumes the carrier has all the sub-channels *somewhere* in their lineup.
2. This works fine in most areas for PBS stations, and in our area for the KCRA and KXTV weather channels (the .2's).
3. Comcast in our area (and apparently ALL areas) does not carry the digital sub-channels for the ION network (formerly PAX). Found this out from the following posts (the 3rd one down from here describes PAX in particular) http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/per...ad.aspx#196989
4. For this reason, there is no comcast digital channel listings that the manually added sub-channels can map in Vista Media Center.
5. Hack won't work for Qubo, end of story. Oh well, boo hoo.

So, the issue is a byproduct of 1) Vista Media Center's software architectural limitation of only being able to pull guide data for ONE provider at a time. 2) Microsoft does not have a contract to get OTA data from Tribune (Zap2it's parent) because OTA is NOT a true provider. How does Microsoft send out the guide data for the ATSC channels in an area you may ask? Easy: They rely on the FCC rule that the provider must carry the .1 majors somewhere in their lineup, and Media Center just looks for a match on the call letters to map it to the ATSC channel numbers.

Thanks for playing! I'll just enjoy what I have already, and between on-demand, our video library, and her recorded shows, my daughter has PLENTY of crap to watch already.

Bob,

Any update on the PSIP?

S~

Bob, I found the Giants Schedule on your website. Will any of the games be in HD?

Jack,

E* reuplinked Fox last week. Do you know if a deal is done or just about done?

Thanks,

S~

I was surprised to see that my media center didn't record ABC tonight with the "no tv signal". I've been checking my DTV signal strength every night since my new antenna, just to keep tabs, and ABC has been 5 or 6 bars (out of 6) all week. Suddenly tonight it is 1 bar, or the equivalent of nothing. Before I go making any adjustments or debugging, I just want to confirm whether anyone else is having OTA issues with KXTV tonight? Every other channel is still 5 or 6 bars for me...

Thanks!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=5808
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=4855
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=5813

KXTV is physical channel 61.

Hope it helps.

- Trip

Thanks, but I already had those fixes when it bit us (Sacramento) last week. By the way, the atscchannels.xml that downloaded on 3/29/08 has the correct physical channels again for KVIE, KXTV, and KTXL....

Anyway, I found it to be that the gain on my antenna reset itself to the lowest strength again. It did this the first night I had it, which is why I've been checking it every day to see if it was a fluke. Well, the piece of crap did it again now after 1 week. Its a phillips MANT510 that I found at Walmart, so I guess I'll be taking it back for a different one. Now I don't know if I should get the same again, the MANT410, or the RCA. I like this one since I know exactly how to position it, but I'm worried it will randomly reset again even on a new one....

What does "reuplinked" mean?

Alright, my apologies, I'm just trying to prevent people the trouble of having to reorient their antennas if it's just Microsoft being stupid.

- Trip

No apology necessary! You're trying to be helpful in a forum for people on the other coast, and maintaining rabbitears.info which I also found very helpful. Keep up the good work...

It was uplinked for about a year but never went live. NO deal was reached with Tribune, so they took it down. Now it was uplinked again.

S~

I have 2 MANT510's daemonic. They've never turned themselves off on me. They're acceptable except during wind events. I would suggest trying a Silver Sensor. Only place I've seen them, not online, is Frys. It's a Philips PHDTV1. It's 9 1/2" tall, 13 1/2" deep, and 12 1/2" wide. It has to be moved for different channels but I have to move the 510's as well. The Silver Sensor does better during wind, at least from my experience. Happy viewing.

Giants in HD on KMAX! Thank you, Bob!

Ditto!!! Thanks, Bob!

HD almost makes up for the reality that they'll be 32-130 this year...

Ditto, ditto! Looks (and sounds) really nice!