Salt Lake City, UT - HDTV - Page 4

i'm watching the pats/panthers game on cbs ota right now. the sound is only in dd 2.0. is this only me, or is it the same for everyone else as well?

Its only in 2.0 for me as well with very quiet announcer volume

Being forced to watch the SD feed for the Olympic Closing Ceremonies is pretty anticlimactic. NBC really screwed up with their HD during the games. I hope they(corporate, not local) catch a lot of flack for it-more so than all the published articles already out there.

How So?

I thought the HD content provided, with the exception of Last Thursday's audio problems, was quite good. My only gripe, which I have with ALL Corporate media coverage in general, was I don't really care what the USA is doing. I'm more interested in the competition.

I did get to see most of the track meet and swim/dive meet; prelims, semis and finals. I could have lived without the encore presentations and the IBC fluff. The pan shots of Greece were pretty SPECTACULAR in HD, IMHO.

Joe

Looks like Fox has their splicer up and running. I had the HD bug all weekend with Dolby 5.1.

1 day after the fact, which didn't bother me, and the lack of opening and closing ceremonies. I'd prefer seeing some of the other events, with other countries aside from the US as well. I'd imagine they would need multiple HD channels to cover everything though. Some day, maybe.

I'd heard they were close, so even though I didn't watch Fox at all this weekend, that's good to know. Did you post that to the big "Fox HD" thread?

I wanted to but the link I had to the thread points me to an archive message now. I did post it to the Stations Broadcasting HDTV and 5.1 thread.

Joe

I agree. My wife & I watched the opening ceremonies in HD. After that we only watched the SD channel. It was hard enough to keep from hearing the results before the prime time coverage. Watching events a full day later in HD was not a good option.

Jeff

I agree. As much as I enjoyed the HD, it was just too after the fact to be meaningful. If you're interested in the Olympics, you watched the SD broadcast because it was the most current. If you weren't real interested, the only event that merited delayed viewing in HD was women's beach volleyball ;-)

I also agree that it was very anti-climatic to see the Closing Ceremonies in SD.

Even though the HD Olympic content was a day later, I had NO problem watching it knowing the results. After all, with a 9 hour delay you would have just as easily heard the results on the news or found them out online before the SD telecast. I'm sure some of you already knew the results before viewing.

Maybe I'm a bit conditioned because I have had to suffer through over 20 years of the Tour De France not being live here in the US. Yet I would tune in every Saturday or Sunday afternoon, late night when espn did the coverage, just to watch.

If I had my choice, I would have preferred LIVE HD coverage.

Joe

Here, Here on the lack of TdF coverage for so many years. The only reason I signed up with DirecTV this year was for their OLN coverage of the Tour. However, I've been so used to HiDef over the past few years that the SD of OLN's coverage was almost painful to watch.

Maybe with Discovery being involved in the ex-Postal team next year, they'll have it on the DiscoveryHD channel, huh?

TDF in HD would be a beautiful thing. I don't think it will happen unless the Societe does it. I think they are the ones who set up the official stream. ;(

Joe

true. that's the only event that i made an effort to watch even though it was only in sd.

Has anyone noticed strange things on 5-2 once the Olympics has finished?

I have noticed that 5-2 was now changed to 4:3 screen size with bars on the side instead of the normal 16:9 zoomed screen that it used to be (during sd broadcast). For example the first showing of the new program Hawaii was broadcast on 5-2 in 4:3 screen size with bars on the side and also in letter box format (bars on the top & bottom).

I am curious if they are going to a format similar to channels 2 & 4 where the high definition channel is shown in 4:3 format for sd and 16:9 for hd programs.

Anyone else have experiencing this or have a comment?

I also noticed the "poor" formatting of Hawaii last night. I was so hoping i would have been real full screen. As it was, I ended up tuning from 5.2 to 5.1 and using the TV's internal zoom to crop out the bars. I figured full screen SD was better than a tiny HD in the middle of the screen.

I noticed the same thing only not just bars on the sides, I had bars on top and bottom as well. Also, sound was pro-logic not 5.1. I got the exact same picture and sound on 5-01 (OTA), 5-02 (OTA) and DISH local channel feed. Seemed that the same feed was being broadcast on all subchannels, although there was the typical couple of seconds delay between 5-01 and 5-02.

Other HD channels had widescreen HD and 5.1 sound so I am pretty sure it is not my equipment, supported by the fact that others saw the same problem locally.

The intro to Hawaii had all kinds of HD and widescreen hype so it was obviously available in HD but something must have happened locally. If the small window they used was actually in HD, it sure wasn't very good HD.

This is probably the first time I tried channel 5 since the olympics so I can't say if it happened in conjuction with the olympics finishing, but could likely have something to do with it.

I have noticed a few strange things while trying to get FOX. Maybe somebody has some insites as to what I am experiencing.

I get it on digital channel 28 really well every once in a while and sometimes it has actually been HD, widescreen, 5.1 sound and all (I think Malcom in the middle showed up once that way and there was a football game once). Usually I get a black screen (that appears to actually have a signal but no content on it) and a lower power signal and sometimes I get no signal at all.

For a while, it actually was showing up on channel 13-01 and/or 13-02 (instead of 28).

Is this something flakey on my DISH 811 or is it a broadcaster tinkering around with their system?

Thanks.
kb

I remember this happening before with another station when I lived in NYC. It was something on the station side that they needed to reset to get the full 16:9 back. Has anyone contacted NBC about this?


Do you get Fox from OTA or Dish? Fox has installed their splicer for HD. You should now be picking up network shows that are HD in HD if you are using OTA channel 13-2. I've just noticed that the signal has bi a bit finicky lately.

Joe

I can only use OTA for FOX. (as indicated above, very off and on, sometimes on 28 sometimes on 13-1 or 2)

I have seen some notices pop up on DISH that tell us to write our congressman and go to some website (have not done so yet) about getting HD for local feeds on the dish.

If that would prove more reliable, I wouldn't mind another $5 on the bill like I pay now for the SD feeds on locals.

Anybody know if reliablity and performace would be better if local HD were to be added to the DISH offerings (vs OTA).

You know, a year ago, I would have been a very "Rah Rah" person for locals over the satellites. (DISH and DTV and whoever else wanted to join the fray.) However, since I have seen the light of how great the local broadcasts really are with just my cheap SS antenna mounted in the attic, I'm not so sure I'm as much of a believer. Franklly, since I figured out how to keep my antenna mounted correctly and not falling down ( ), dropouts have been MUCH less than my parent's DTV setup (which is pretty good to start out with.)

My point is this: I'm not so sure I think that HD over satellite for locals is such a good idea. They've got to put up more birds to support the bandwidth or somehow figure that one out with the ones they've got - which will probably cost $$ and be passed on to the subscriber - or reduce bandwidth which will reduce quality.

I mean, current ATSC stuff isn't perfect by any means. It has the same inherant flaws as other digital systems (IMHO - mainly delay in changing channels and occasional dropouts).

Yes, I'd like the option of watching Las Vegas in HD if I wanted to (I don't FWIW), yes I wish I had PSIP data for all the stations all the time, yes I wish USDTV would quit eating up bandwidth, and yes I wish I owned my own island in the Carribean and could still get my "local channels", but all of these issues (excluding the last one ) will be worked out over time.

I've been quite happy with my OTA setup, especially since all my digital subscriptions are paid for by those nice people called advertisers.

Now, with that said, I can see me using more channels than are available OTA (I still get our HOA provided Provo cable - which sucks for quality, eg. ESPN hasn't had audio for a day or two), but now that I've seen how good local OTA can be, I can't argue with how things are shaping up, meaning locals OTA and "other" national channels delivered by some other mechanism, be it digital cable, satellite, fibre, or some other means.

I'm looking forward adding FOX, WB (and ultimately UPN if they get their equipment up and running before ST:Enterprise gets killed off) to my "repertoire" of HD programming I watch OTA.

[/soapbox]

In response to what bakerzdosen had to say I agree on some of his comments but he needs to understand that the OTA signals only travel so far. There are many people out there who are far enough away from the towers so as not to get the OTA HD signals or in a geographically challenged area (i.e. behind a mountain or in a hole) without taking extreme measures with an antenna tower and an antenna the size of a 747. And what about the areas that get the local channels through a translator station, should they suffer just because of there location.

I think that local channels in HD by satellite are a good thing for a number of reasons.

What???? There are other people in the world BESIDES ME??? My mom kept mentioning something about that while I was growing up years ago, but seriously, who knew?

The other thing I forgot to add is that OTA coverage is quite good along the Wasatch Front due to the altitude/location of the transmitters. Go read pretty much any city's OTA thread out there and people are just really miffed at reception - much moreso than SLC area.

But I do understand that not everyone is as incredibly "lucky" as I am getting very acceptable levels of all SLC digital channels at 45+ miles out on a $20 antenna the size of a notebook. I guess should have summarized with "things will (should?) only get better for OTA HD, but IMHO, they're really better than average now."

Agreed on the antenna thing. A tower with something like a CM3020 isn't an option for me either.

I guess it's just the physics of the matter that keep slapping me around. HD locals are TOUGH on any national level. There just isn't enough bandwidth. Great concept. Hard to execute.

Side note: I would have liked to have seen the Utah game in HD last night though...

I'll have to agree with bakerzdosen on this one. SLC has one of the best HD setups in the country, with only one channel (24) that's not at least DTV. I live 56 miles from the transmitters and get every channel, even 13.x, wonderfully with a RatShack antenna mounted in the attic. Seems like we've got it pretty good here...

I watched most of the game in high-def last night and it was beautiful! I had to watch it at my dad's house as I only have OTA HDTV, but he has the Dish HD PVR which is pretty cool (I just hope the prices come down).

Now the dilemea, watch the BYU game in the comfort of my own house on my 100" screen in SD, or go to my parents house and watch it on his 80" screen in HD?

I am so excited to see local college football in HD, I think if BYU/Utah fans were to watch one of the games on a large screen in HD there would be a few more people out looking to buy HD sets.

I just hope the BYU game has the same outcome as the Utah one.

Does anyone know what the breakup of the bandwidth for KSL is?

The reason I ask is 2 or 3 times during the Olympics I checked out their delayed HD but only watched for a few minutes - the picture looked as if it were starved for bandwidth. The runners legs were jumbled up little squares of mush. This wasn't just during one night but a few nights over about a week. I just couldn't stand to watch it.

Was something else going on? I can't imagine watching a basketball or football game like that - you wouldn't be able to see what was going on.

Just curious!

I've been looking at possibly buying a condo. I know that federal law says I can put up an antenna or dish on my balcony/patio. I had a building manager tell me that UT law says I can put an antenna on any building roof top even if the HOA objects.

I cannot find any info on this. Can anyone confirm, deny or point me in the right direction?

Thanks
Joe

KSL-DT is running 15.0 MBps on HDTV and 3.3 MBps on SDTV.

The new format for upconverted SD>HD is on purpose....it keeps us from cutting off the phone numbers, and gives a better picture when the scan converters aren't having to do so much math.

The Olympics were converted from 1080i/50 to 1080i/59.97 before leaving Athens.....we saw a lot of motion artifacts and scan conversion artifacts. Don't know how NBC will do it all in HD in Torino, since most of the world wants 50 Hz.

As for translators, new rules are in the works for DTV Translators (several are already on the air in test mode)....... unfortunately some Counties are in favor of shutting them all off to save money. Looks like many people are going to need $atellite, if that happens. Or, at least (in town) Cable.

joev,
Try this FCC link
I'm not sure of Utah specific law but if you have problems with a HOA just show them this and that should be the end of it.