Johnstown, PA - HDTV - Page 107

I am one of those viewers, I went from WTAJ, horrible WATM, and really, really snowy WPSU, WHVL and WJAC to All the locals with a small antenna investment. While a similar antenna in the analog era may have helped, the conversion has been mostly positive for me.

Also, I thought I was getting WPSU off of a translator in the Altoona area since its about 18 miles from me... I guess not.

-Phillip

At least we can agree on that...I picked up an Openbox S10 and a moveable KU dish, and get 100s of channels, including PBS. I have the same sat feeds that WPSU cherry-picks from. And the sub-channels (Create, World), too!

Same for me. I was finally able to watch WPGH, without the help of DISH, once I had an HDTV.

While I lost WJAC (still get it in SD via ClearQAM) and WTAJ, I gained WATM from 8-2. Now if they'd just do what WKBN did with their channels and split the mux in half with two HD channels. I get WPSU inconsistently compared to when it was analog, but at least it doesn't strain my eyes to see what's on.

Can anybody please verify for me if Comcast Customers in Ebensburg and surrounding areas get any free local QAM channels at all?

Google results just pointed to Comcast's bigger areas and some results said, each Comcast System is individual meaning one entire city/system could decide to not offer ClearQAM while another city/system says let's offer it. A few even claimed Comcast has like an internal policy that says to not encrypt locals but any division is allowed to "bypass" the order.

Down here in Cumberland, tonight the guide displayed 12 new HD channels. They weren't coming in, so I called to ask them when they planned to get them up, and I'm told we'll have them here by the end of the week. A nice little Christmas present, I think.

I'm hoping you guys in Altoona/Johnstown get them too since our systems are so connected. This update really fills some of the major HD holes in our lineup.

We're getting.

729 Spike HD
730 AMC HD
739 Comedy Central HD
742 MTV HD
759 Cartoon Network HD
763 Nickelodeon HD
768 MSNBC HD
775 Hallmark HD
800 TCM HD
802 LMN HD
826 HBO2 HD
841 Showtime 2 HD

Thank you Atlantic Broadband for giving us more HD, and I hope we'll see even more in the future.

So RiteAid had/has 7inch portable TVs for $30 with your wellness+ card. Since this is much cheaper than they are normally, I picked one up, and while it has all the issues of portable ATSC, it works and looks good for the price. Hooked to the rooftop antenna, it worked very well, but refuses to receive WKBS for some reason. Can anyone offer a guess on why this is?

Thanks,
Phillip

I wonder about this, too. I lost WKBS reception in the middle of last year. Not that I really miss it, but only occasionally does it pop up on my TV. I have a rooftop antenna, and receive all of the other Altoona signals with no difficulty.

I can receive the Cornerstone analog translator on 13 in State College with 'No Signal' bouncing around all day and night...apparently it lost WKBS reception, as well.

Any body else having audio issues with WJAC s feed on Directv. Surround channel is garbled sometimes

It's not jus DirecTV...the OTA is having issues, as well. I notice it primarily on the network feed. Sounds like they have digital artifacts in their audio, especially with low frequencies.

I'm not at all complaining, but is there a reason that the mediocre Fox8 and ABC23 logos have been redesigned with nicer backgrounds? Or is it just that they finally saved up enough to pay some kid to update them.

More likely they upgraded some equipment allowing cleaner lower third inserts.
But yes, good to see a more professional on air appearance from them.

Does anybody have any hint as to when ABB in the area will be going digital?

ABB in the Uniontown area has already gone digital probably for 6 months or so at least.

That's why I'm wondering if ABB will actually wait until June, but then again, June is close enough, I suppose they can wait.

Uniontown has been digital for well over a year now. As far as I know, the only ABB clusters that are all-digital are Uniontown and the Eastern Shore of MD.

We have those additional 16 HD channels or so in Cumberland because we're an 860MHz system, but we have a ton of analog down here still (2-36, 38-60, 62-76, 97-99). And nobody has said we're going all-digital any time soon.

ABB has been focusing on going D3 in all their divisions. Of the 6 major clusters, Cumberland is the ONLY one who hasn't gone beyond MegaMax yet. ABB Unleashed in South Florida is 75/5 for $69.99, and there's a Peak tier down there (110/5) for an overpriced $199.99.

There's a lot of HD channels in ABB's overall system now, I count 72 networks and 31 premiums. BBC America HD, NatGeo Wild HD, Oxygen HD, ID HD, Hallmark Movies HD, Style HD, OWN HD, Tennis Channel HD are some that have appeared either on the Eastern Shore or in South Florida. The Eastern Shore has 31 HD premium channels alone, now featuring many west coast feeds in HD and RetroPlex HD. We don't even have all the east coast feeds they do in SD.

Wow, I must admit, it seems that Atlantic BB is really taking their good old time at doing the digital switchover in the Johnstown area.

I'm just surprised how quickly they switched over the Uniontown and I believe one other area, yet it seems, every day we get closer to the June 30th deadline and I see no changes or notices.

I know two people who have cable and they were not notified in anyway about converter boxes or anything.

I'm glad that WJAC went to HD several weeks ago, although the difference between non-HD and HD WJAC is moot on my sd TV. Had non-HD WJAC looked like WATM/WWCP's syndicated shows it would have been much more noticeable.

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Edited by Nokorola - 6/7/12 at 1:47pm

This could be interesting. Atlantic Broadband is for sale and could fetch well over a billion dollars, according to a Bloomburg article.

According to the article a first round of bids from prospective buyers are in hand.

Don't really know what this means to subscribers in the Johnstown and Altoona areas, but I must say I do get a little HD envy when visiting friends in the suburbs connected to Comcast.

Maybe Comcast and the other of the big 3 will buy Atlantic Broadband and the rest of the small Cable companies, and then a few years down the road the government can break up another 3 monstrosities since they haven't been able to do that in a while.

Edit

I think it's funny that it's supposed to be surprising that the cable companies are losing subscribers. It's amazing that that's happening considering the very affordable rates that they charge.
Edited by Nokorola - 6/7/12 at 2:07pm

The TV offerings will improve under almost anyone who buys us.

Then again, the same capital group that currently owns Atlantic Broadband owns overbuilder RCN. Take a look at their lineup sometime and see what we're not getting.

Yeah they charge with taxes $22.00 a month for the locals with a few shopping and religious channels thrown in, and they wonder why people are cutting the cord. Dish Network has a family package for $25.00 a month with many good channels.

Is WTAJ finally passing their syndicated programming in 16X9? I flipped over to The Late Late Show and caught the end and it wasn't in a craptastic letter boxed 14X9 thing, then Comics Unleashed came on in 16X9 as well. Did WTAJ finally decide to spend some money on new hardware?

Your move WATM / WWCP. Your equipment you probably bought used in the 80s or recycled from WFAT has to be worn out by now.

Im looking for a good dtv installer in johnstown asap!!!!!!! any help !!!!!!!!

Anyone know why WPSU's PSIP crapped out the other day? I can still get it, but it is only available on 15.3, .4, .5, and not on the previously mapped 3.1, .2, .3. I'd think this was storm-related, but that didn't get here yet.

-Phillip


Update 10-31-12: It's fixed now.
Edited by Nokorola - 11/2/12 at 5:24am

Is there any word on when WTAJ is going HD? Also, is WATM having issues with its transmitter, because it has been unrecevable for me for at least two days.

-Phillip

The Altoona Mirror states that they are building a new set. They also said that it would be completed by the first week of February. No telling if they would be in HD by then, but it will be forthcoming. Good that Nexstar is finally getting the stations in HD. Better late than never.

ABB in Johnstown (and I presume Altoona) will be dropping KDKA from the lineup. They say "dozens" of HD channels will be added by fall.

I was swamped with final college stuff so I haven't seen a lot of late-night TV recently, however, I see tonight that both CSI: Miami on WATM and The King of Queens on WWCP are in HD (or at least in 16:9) now. It's good to see some investment in infrastructure by the two stations, hopefully it's a good sign.

So I was watching New Girl tonight, and I was surprised to see a 16x9 (and HD?) commercial for Fox8 News. At 10pm I watched the news in 16x9, and while the graphics are definitely still not exciting, they are much better, and it now looks like Fox8 (and ABC23) actually don't want to wallow forever on the sideline as also-rans. Hopefully they have more success, as it is nice to see improvements.