Madison, WI - HDTV - Page 185

Batteries are only like $2 a piece and if there is a power failure it will run for months on battery power. The display console that it sends the wind info to wireless has a battery backup so if I lost power for an extended time it would still log the data.

Thanks for the reply Andy

That is why the power supply used to feed the DC would be on a UPS. Hell, if you wanted to stick with batteries, you could have a battery holder in the house and feed the DC ti the unit on the tower. No dealing with the tower to replace batteries.

The main reason I want a tilt over tower isn't just for the battery change I will probably add another webcam in the future. The bottom line is if I want to change batteries, service or replace anemometer, change or replace antenna, add a webcam or anything else I want to do it myself and climbing a tower is OUT!

Well, if there are towers that can do what you want, I've not seen any. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I've never seen one.

Well now you have........
http://www.rohnnet.com/towers-foldover

Folding Tower=nice, especially for those of us with fears

I seriously want to understand why a 30-40 ft tower for Sun Prairie. Wouldn't roof top suffice? Or is it to pull in Milwaukee?

I wondered the same question.

Since I did cut the cable cord pulling in Milwaukee stations is big due to packer games. Also would like to get my anemometer close to the proper height of 33'. I may also put a lightning detector and web cam up there some day as well cant afford one right now but maybe next year

DirecTV and WMSN/Sinclair in a dispute. WMSN's splicer crawl doesn't sound optimistic about a deal being reached. It doesn't mention being able to watch the station for free OTA either. :-(

Of course not. If they did, they'd give folks an out and then the D* customers wouldn't be calling D* demanding an agreement.

Of course, if Sinclair were truly honest, they'd also disclose that the negotiation is going to cause higher D* bills next year.

From D*:


DIRECTV Statement Regarding Sinclair Broadcast Group
*Updated February 21st

We're engaged in productive discussions with Sinclair Broadcast Group to retain their local stations in the DIRECTV line-up. Despite Sinclair's attempts to alarm everyone, our customers can rest assured no one is going to disrupt their programming. Sinclair has used the same tactics to frighten customers of every other major TV provider without actually taking down its stations. We will compensate Sinclair fairly, but our customers should not be forced to pay more than twice as much for the same programs that remain free to watch over the air and online.

They apparently reached a nationwide deal, with a short term extension to avoid loss of stations to allow time to finalize the long term deal. These almost always seem to be worked out at the last minute. But both sides tend to go to the public for weeks with tons of posturing that means little in the end.

From the WMSN home page:

"Attention DirecTV Customers: Sinclair is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with DirecTV on a new retransmission consent agreement and has entered into a short-term extension of its existing agreement in order to allow the parties to enter into a formal agreement. As a result, DirecTV will continue to carry all of our stations. We thank our viewers for their patience and support during these negotiations."

WMTV says they're testing 15.3. I'm not by a TV now, so I can't verify. No word on whether it will have permanent programming/what will be on it/what it will do bitrate/quality wise to 15.1.

Just did a scan 15-3 shows up had a static image that said "new channel coming soon" now there is a commercial for the overture center and promo spots for 15-1. My tivo guide says "to be announced" for the programming guide.

Interesting. So it's official, but we don't know what "it" is. Even if Tom Weeden still reads this forum, he probably can't tell us yet. ;-)

No, he probably can't.

It is also too early to do a capture and run it through TSR to see what the bitrates are.

Titan tv listings show it as Antenna tv on 15-3.

http://www.antennatv.tv/

FWIW

Tom Weeden just announced it on the WMTV Engineering Twitter page. It is indeed Antenna TV, coming 4/1.

Re: Bitrates... Here's how we're balancing what we've got on WMTV with the new subchannel using statistical multiplexing. This is a long-term sample over the last day or so.

15.1
Minimum 14.029 megabits/sec
Maximum 16.197

15.2
Minimum 0.831
Maximum 1.688

15.3
Minimum 0.828
Maximum 2.789

The 3 channels share the available bits depending on video content...but 15.1 video gets priority if there's a conflict. A typical snapshot in time shows 15.742, 0.911 and 1.112 megabits on the 3 channels totaling 17.765 for all video out of the permitted 19.39 Mb/sec. The rest is split between audio, captioning, program guide and other data housekeeping.

That's probably the best you could do with 3 channels. ~15.74 Mbps isn't that far from the ~15.9 Mbps 15.1 was at. Most of the bits for 15.3 appear to have come from 15.1. I'm still not finished re-evaluating, but it looks like you get to keep your status as best-looking station in the market.

You heard that right, you and your 2 subs look better than WISC with 1, (at least on paper).

Tom,

This is Garry, Director of Programming at Wisconsin Public Television. I noticed that 15.3 has no guide data on DirecTV, which means the channel can't be searched or recorded on DirecTV DVR's. Is there something you can do?
Edited by PTV Programmer - 4/27/13 at 4:10pm

I don't mean to speak for Mr. Weeden, but I remember hearing some time ago that DirecTV's guide was at its limit and could not be made any larger, so no additional subchannels were being added. Not sure how true that is.

- Trip

Guide data for several subs was recently added in St Louis, so it's not completely impossible.

I tried this nifty trick found on the DirecTV forums and it works like a charm. Now I get listings from WSFL in Miami that work for 15.3 here, including all the Antenna TV listings, the ability to search and record from the channel.

I checked the database and DirecTV broadcasts about 13 .3 subchannels on RF19. The Madison channel 15.3 is broadcast on RF19. Try Miami FL. or San Diego CA. zip code as your secondary zip code. They both broadcast Antenna TV on a .3 subchannel on RF19. If one of those works you will even have the correct guide info although it might be an hour off because of time zone differences. If those don't work there are some other zip codes you can try. It will work, but sometimes interference will give you an error code "searching for signal." One of the 13 zip codes should give you your channel. This information is for the AM21 that doesn't scan and only goes on DirecTV's database on the 2 zip codes entered. If you have an HR34 or Tivo THR22 your AM21 should scan and pick-up the channel without any guide info.

I thought the Me-TV guide data got moved from WRBU to KMOV, which would be a replacement and not an addition.

- Trip

Does anyone know if Charter added 15.3? If so, where?

but previously there was no guide data for 46-2 (WRBU)

Data for KTVI's 2.2 was added at the same time that the guide data was added for Me-TV on KMOV. What was odd about the appearance of the ME-TV guide was that it was more than a week early for the actual start of operation of ME-TV on KMOV.

So far nothing. My HD TiVo alerted me to the addition of channel 15.3, but neither my (not Charter) TiVo nor anyone with Charter can tell me anything about getting it on cable.

BTW, the PSIP data that I get when I tune 15.3 in over an antenna shows "ANT-TV" as the name

EDIT: One Charter rep told me that I could find it on channel 94, but I don't get any channel 94.
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Edited by Speed Daemon - 4/29/13 at 10:23am