LaCrosse / Wausau, WI - HDTV - Page 4

I don't understand why you would have HD service with so few channels. They could have all of the HD movie channels, and it appears they don't have Discovery, TNT, ESPN2 (I know hardly anyone does), Universal, INHD1&2, or NFL Network. I just want as many channels as possible.

Did Charter do something that resulted in you not wanting their service again?

As Voom was winding down I decided on a lifestyle change--no need for 57 channels and nothing's on with constant surfing in search of a better program. I have free ota hd now and have no need for Charter.
If I ever decide I want more channels than ota I will go with satellite again. If you want lots of hd channels it looks like Dish is the place to go since they got Voom's hd channels.

I guess I will just have to see what the best deal is if/when I move there. I'm probably going to want to wait and see what happens with the mpeg4 transition. It looks like ABC, CBS, and NBC are what can be picked up HD OTA, with no Fox yet.

You forgot PBS. Wisconsin Public Television multicasts PBS HD as well as their analog signal. WHLA-DT in La Crosse seems to sign off in the early morning, but WHWC-DT in Eau Claire stays on 24x7. I get both from SE Minnesota, so you'd be almost sure to get one.

Yes, and also PBS which multicasts an sd and hd channel which usually show different programs. Fox is digital and not hd yet. The NBC channel (out of Eau Claire) is problematic because it is 58 miles to the NE of La Crosse while the others are to the NW and SW and much closer. An antenna would need a rotor,or in my case I use 2 antennas with an A/B switch. I have a Voom ota antenna (SquareShooter) which picks up everything except NBC. I put up a CM 4228 to pick up NBC out of Eau Claire which finally allowed me to cancel Charter since I was paying $13 a month just to get NBC in sd.
I use an LG Lst 4200a hd receiver to get ota hd.

Hello,

I tried reading through all the posts, but I didn't see that anyone mentioned that Charter carries all the HD channels locally but not pbs in HD just in SD.

They also carry all the Twin Cities stations(in SD again), I have no idea why. But they do.

BTW they are all QAM encoded though.

I noticed that myself. I have a sony lcd tv with a built-in atsc and qam tuner. I did a rescan the other day and noticed that I now get wcco, kstp, kare, tpt, and wftc now, but I did not notice Fox-9. Are you able to get fox9?

They do carry nbc, cbs, and abc in HD. I sure hope they add Fox in HD before football and baseball playoffs begin.

Nope no Fox 9 either.

Nice tv btw.

I don't see any of those channels on the moxi HD box I have. Do I need to have a seperate tuner..??? BTW I live on french island...

For those of you waiting for FOX 55 in Wausau to go digital if you do a search on www.antennaweb.org and use the Stevens Point zip 54481 they have a live date posted of 03-06. I know that is almost a year away but anything is better then nothing. I will see if i can get a reply back from the station engineer and keep everyone posted.

Dave

From a reliable source, I've heard that WKBT-DT won't be putting up their full-power transmitter until late summer at the earliest. This means they won't make the spring 05 date they posted on the SBE website last fall.

Sorry about the false alarm on 55 going digital. Here is the email reply i received back

No truth at all.. Sorry...
March 2006 was a projected schedule for the FCC to grant digital channels to the 200+ stations that do not yet have them. That includes us. Just last week that scheduled date was possibly pushed back to August.

Once the FCC grants a channel allocation, it could take up to a year to get it built. There would be a couple of months of FCC applications and modifications, then we'd order the transmitter and antenna. Then, given the Wisconsin weather, installation on the tower is limited from October thru March due to ice and snow.

As soon as we have anything close to a firm schedule we'll be the ones that announce it.. All these private websites do is guess based on little snippets of information that's made public.

Any reason given? Other than I suppose money.....

Dick Konrad (chief engineer) isn't answering my emails these days. I have to get my information second-hand, so I don't have any good reasons. I might go to an SBE meeting later in the year (schedule conflicts keep me from going now) and see if I can get more detailed info then.

I do know that demand for tower work has climbed dramatically as the 7/1/05 deadline hits for top-4 affiliates in the top 100 markets. It is possible that WKBT has either given up their place in line to stations facing this deadline or were set back by a rise in price related to the high demand. WKBT deserves some kudos for not waiting until the last minute to get their station up to full power (they have until 7/1/06.) Tower work is a very delicate thing, and delays can crop up overnight. I know of at least three tower failures since the digital transition started, so I'm sure crews are very careful not to go up in bad weather.

I've noticed that the SBE website has not been updated since early April. I've always wanted to go to one of those meetings as well. I guess I should be happy I can receive WKBT-DT at all, albeit via charter basic cable which I would like to get rid of. The local FOX station on the other hand I doubt will be doing any HD until 2009, if then.

Do you know if there is a chance that Congress would pass something that would allow people to get a waiver for receiving FOX HD via satellite if the local station is not offering it? I thoiught I read something about that once

Yes, HD (that is, digital) waivers do exist today.

Is today the day for WKBT? I can't get anything on analog 8, which could mean they're using the side transmitter while tower work is going on. And I got my first lock ever of WKBT-DT, though not a very strong one. (crosses fingers)

If the HD waivers do in fact exist, has anyone been able to receive one in the La Crosse area?

I will let you know if i get one from Fox 55 in Wausau.

Well it looks like WKBT at least got rid of that god-awful stretch thing they did whenever they had sd material on the air. In my opinion it was brutal. The last two days they have had all their sd material 4x3.

Were you correct that they are now full power?

I was declined on the HD wavier from Fox 55 & DirectTV. I did send an email to the station engineer who has been very helpful in the past.

It doesn't appear so. However, I'm guessing they do have their transmitter up near the peak of the tower now. I don't know how else to explain getting locks (I've had more since my post a week and a half ago.) However, I'm not getting a signal anywhere near as strong as WHLA-DT (50kw) or even WEAU-DT (500kw, but almost 20 miles further away.) Thus, I suspect that they are still operating at low power, perhaps because they don't have the equipment installed or delivered that would be necessary to increase the transmitting power.

For those who are closer than I am (nearly 60 miles) and have been on the borderline for getting WKBT-DT, I'd strongly suggest they try again.

It doesn't look like this is the case. They still are stretching during times that are not prime time. I have talked to their engineer and he refuses to change it unless the Madison station changes. The only "exception" they make is from 7 to 11:30 pm.

Yea, I noticed that too. There was one week about 3 weeks ago that all the sd material was 4x3 24/7 but then the next week it was back to the stretch. I don't know if they forgot to pull the switch or were testing or what but I wish they would knock it off. The stretch makes it virtually unwatchable whenever 4x3 content is on.

Which Madison station is he talking about?

I believe he is talking about the Madison CBS. He makes it sound like they are under the same ownership (or management) and that the station here can't make any decisions for themselves.

We get essentially the same thing... only WXOW for ABC since that is the La Crosse station.

Even when your local Fox goes digital, they will not go HD right away... which means it will not change anything about what you get through Charter. (Charter refuses to re-broadcast until it is true HD) This has been the case here anyway.

I'm sure its just wishful thinking but right now on Fox 25 there is a black screen with the following message:

FCC TEST IN PROGRESS
CHANNEL WILL RETURN MOMENTARILY

Sure would be something if they were testing some new equipment...

WEAU 13.1 appears to be off the air again. It was off Thursday night, on for part of Friday, but off again last night and is still off the air now.

WEAU was working for the second half of the ND game today. I hope their problems are solved soon.