Albuquerque, NM - HDTV - Page 232

MTN-HD on ch261. Thanks Comcast!

not anymore Thanks for the Lobos game Comcast, but I was excited to watch all the games today in HD

yes, ABC did a great job. No local network here does a great job (other than keeping a transmitter on the air) because they all reprocess it from 15-35 mb on the distribution feeds down to about 10-12 mb for terrestrial and usually also has to convert H264 video to MPEG2 video.

what happened? Comcast pulled MTN HD after the Lobos game? I'm surprised since comcast carries the MTN that they wouldn't keep the HD feed on as long as it's available. It's only like the MTN uses HD about 6 days a year.

I'm so pissed that you can't watch Lobo games OTA--or on Dish--I could scream. Who's brilliant idea was that?

Used to be able to watch just about all of them on KRQE. Now it's the moron MTN network, which at least half of the state can't get, and those who can don't get all the games anyway. Great flippin' marketing, UNM.

And Dish, what the helll is up with you that you can't get a deal with the MTN. Bad as they are, they're the only game in town.

Morons on all sides of this one.

Rant off--sorry about that.

Have any friends on Comcast? Maybe they could help you out.
JR

Thanks.. The remaining games will be on National TV, so I'll be able to watch at home. It's a long way to anyone with Comcast, and considering my investment in equipment, it seems kind of a pain to have to do it that way.

My real point is UNM should make more games available to the public. What do they gain like this?

I could be wrong, but I think its a decision by the MWC, and out of UNM's hands. I agree, that most road games at least should be on OTA TV.

Exactly--As should sold out home games, which is what they used to do.

Bear in mind, I'm going back as far as the Stormin' Norm Ellenberger days.

I'm sure it all has to do with the mighty dollar in the end. Even though "The Mtn." reaches far fewer people in UNM's main market of interest, I'm sure they are getting paid more for the broadcast rights then what they were with local broadcasters, or sports coverage syndication companies that used to produce these games for broadcast stations. Like Raycom, who now mostly produce the games for ESPN and others etc..

Up until these small sports nets came up, I would surmise that most of the smaller conferences had better coverage of the larger sports within them, like Football and Basketball. This is similar to how the Big Ten Network came in and took a bunch of the broadcast rights away, and limited the fans ability to see their teams play. But at least on some satellite and cable providers they have multiple Big Ten Net feeds to show all the games that are playing at the same time. I don't think The Mtn. has multiple feeds to show all the teams when they have conflicts. But again, if at least the local broadcasters had some games, then no matter if your over the air, sat, or cable, you could at least see the game. Instead of being limited by the cable companies or sat companies multiple tiers they want to sell you, just so you can get "The Mtn."

Mind you, if you wanted to watch UNM play the entire western conference finals from start to finish, you had to first see them on "The Mtn." for the first round, then on CBS Collage Sports, and finally on Versus. That's three networks that you may or may not have access to depending on the provider and what tier they put those networks on..

It's just way more complicated then it used to be. While everyone is trying to make a buck off of smaller and smaller conferences, in a kind of land grab. Eventually they will have a high school sports netlet, and try and make money off of that. Very sad.

@mdamberger

I pretty much agree with your sentiments. Especially the number of RSN's out there now. It used to be one RSN covered all the sports in an entire area, now in some markets theres 1 for the baseball team, 1 for hockey, and 1 for basketball. The programming just gets more and more watered down. And don't get me going on the need for each and every pro league to have their own channel.

The one good thing though is its now possible (with DirecTV, not Dish) for lobo fans who have left New Mexico to watch live games. Before the MTN, us in the Albuquerque DMA had it good but not those living "abroad".

Any insights on why Dish doesn't carry the Mtn? Just money, I suppose.

Maybe because Comcast owns 50%. Just sayin'...

Didn't know that--you're probably right.

Thanks

Don't have Directv

Don't want DirecTV

Don't know what a FTA is

He's referring to Free To Air satellite television. For this (unless I'm mistaken) you need a large, 10ft+, C-band satellite dish. I believe pay television on such systems is all but dead, however you can get the high bitrate HDTV feeds of the major networks, except fox. I've seen a couple of such feeds and they make what we get over the air look rather mediocre. If it was at all practical for me I'd have one.

Actually FTA Dishes can range from 80cm to the old 10' or even larger BUDS... there is still subscription TV on C-Band, but FTA is just that, Free To Air...

Thanks for the info, guys.

But aren't those feeds encrypted/scrambled in some fashion? How do you get around that?

I've been reading things on various websites and forums lately. It seems there are some network HDTV feeds that can be found "in the wild" (unencrypted) sometimes on C-band. Ku-band had quite a lot of FTA programming for a while but its all but dried up. It seems the more I scour the internet and read about FTA the more confused I get.

I'm curious to know more about N5XZS's system. I didn't think you could receive C-band on such a small dish. But I also hear the further south you are the better your reception. I have a Superdish on my roof right now, and right now I watch hardly any TV on satellite. I'd be curious to know what I can get with it.

And what I meant about pay tv being all buy dead on C-band is from: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=172250

Also, I looked at what some of the providers channel lists, and they're missing some major ones.

Check the other Satellite site for real up to date FTA info...

My comments in BOLD.

you can't receive c-band on such a small dish. You really need a 8.5' or larger dish to do C-band reliably (you can get some things on a 4' dish, but it's hit and miss that you'll be able to get what you want to get).

I love my 10', 9' and 8' dishes - while you guys are watching Cowboys or Broncos or Raiders in SD on the amateur acme stations, I'm watching it (and loads of other NFL preseason games) in HD. I'm watching a few last holdouts of pro sports feeds and also watching NASA Television HD during shuttle missions.

On the smaller dish, you can get Ku-band stuff such as mobile news feeds and a good amount of college sports telecasts and view lots of ethnic programming that sometimes can be interesting if there is a natural disaster or civil unrest. If you are a religion television diehard viewer, there are lots of religious channels to keep you satisfied if you want more than what is on UHF in this town.

It's been fun this week watching the Lobos on the NCAA press conference feeds -- Alford telling Ro in an awkward moment that he'll tell the press his initial thoughts about Washington when Ro was called out on what he thought he knew about the Huskies -- or watching the press feeds of teams who lost at the buzzer or even Vanderbilt's post-game presser trying to talk about a humiliating loss to a 13 seed. It's also been a great month for spring training feeds as MLB ramps up to the regular season.

If you want a FTA dish to replace your cable bill, it isn't going to happen if you want that same cable fare. If you are looking for a FTA dish to give you more audio or video choices to listen to/view other than what you get off-air, then that is a suitable replacement to a cable/DBS bill.

you only get the feeds that are transmitted unscrambled, thus why it's called "F"ree "T"o "A"ir television. If they are scrambled, you are SOL unless you use your small dish for an ethic service that will sell you their receiver with a descrambler module and a subscription. you can watch your ethnic channel via subscription and use the same receiver to tune in unscrambled other feeds as well.

No commiecast in my neighborhood and can't see giving up Dish for DirecTV, for more reasons than I care to go into. I'll just have to pressure Dish to carry the Mtn, and the Lobos or the MWC to find a new broadcaster.

Thanks to all for your input.

I underastand the FTA, but the "high bitrate HD feeds of major networks.." means ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX & CW right? How do you get around any encryption they have?

That's what I am asking.



If they are scrambled, where are you getting this info from? How can you measure it if it is scrambled?

Each local channel only gets 19.3Mbs of space to use for HD, any sub-channels and the mandated channel data.

"...A television station has 19.3 MBS total capability per channel. There is no consensus among broadcasters on the ideal bandwidth for hi-def. Some broadcasters believe 10 to 12 MBS is enough; others say as much as 16 MBS may be needed, according to Lynn Claudy, senior vice president of science and technology at the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington..." http://blogs.computerworld.com/digit...ter_than_cable

How much do you think locally is given away to the sub-channels? Are you saying that 36-47% of the bandwith is given to those channels? I understand the religious channels split up their bandwith to accommodate up to 5 subs, but 4 & 7? Are they really giving the subs that much bandwith? I just find your numbers a little cynical is all.