Chico, CA - HDTV - Page 3

I think that KNVN had a change of plan. They are testing at 1080i and a friend told me that he watched Leno in HD last night! Let me know how things look at your end.

John

BTW, did you get the waivers?

I had the comcast people in Chico come out a few days ago and he hinted that CBS/NBC have very good chance of being added this month in Digital format on Comcast. Hope the tech was right.

Yes, I saw that all of Thursdays prime time programming is broadcast HD but no audio! Needless to say this is looking pretty good.

Regarding the cable companies. Charter serves my area. They are way in the back woods when it comes to local digital and HD programming. They are pretty sad. If they would become proactive and provide HD locals, the demand for HD in homes would increase.

Now how much longer before KHSL converts to HD?

I have Comcast in Oroville. In my channel scan last night I noticed that KRCR ABC is now on channel 7.1 in HD 720p. Just in time for the Super Bowl. Whoo Hoo! It is not yet mapped to a channel on the STB. I also found KNVN NBC on channel 77.1 at 1080i. It had no audio and a lot of artifacts. I guess it is still a work in progress.
Maybe they will have it working in time for the Olympics. They join Fox and PBS which were already in place. Now we just need CBS 12 to come up to speed.

NBC just showed up in my guide. They had a sign outside of Comcast in Chico which said the Super Bowl will be in Hi-Def. So I guess ABC will be online VERY soon, or they got another feed for the game. This is in Chico btw.

cmassa -

How far are your from the NBC digital transmitter (I'm N/W of it about 65 miles)? Do you have a signal strength meter (if so, is it good)? My ATSC turner is still mapping NBC to 2-1 as of this afternoon, some of the hockey game was in HD and the quality was outstanding.

Hopefully, all the bugs will get ironed out before the Olympics.

Thanks,

John

I live in the N/W part of Redding. After reading this post, I stuck an indoor UHF antenna out the window and got a reading of 38 for NBC on a DTV receiver. Bought an outdoor antenna from Radio Shack and stuck it out the window and got a reading of 60. Next step is the roof. Picture is very stable. I was supprised to get anything because of a nearby hill in the line of sight to Chico.

The ATSC tuner maps NBC to 2-1 and 36-2 with pictures on both. Tried the scan again and lost 36-2. Has anyone else noticed 36-2 disapearing.

Can't get any readings for FOX or CBS.

Chas

I was off a little in distance . According to AntennaWeb.Org, I'm around 54.4 miles from the KHSL transmitter. Not as far away as thought. I'm pretty sure that KNVN digital and KHSL digital are or were transmitting from atop Cohassit. Now that I'm getting a very good signal for KNVN, and that the signal increases slightly when I point a few degrees to the South of Cohassit, that just maybe, the KNVN signal is now transmitting from Tuscan which is only 25 miles away.

cmassa, reception of ABC and PBS doesn't sound too good for you. From what I understand, KRCR eventually is going back to channel 7 for digital and KIXE back to 9. I suspect that only around that time will they use repeaters for the digital signals. It would be competitive if they did repeat the digital signal for your area, I could see that pushing the others to upgrade sooner.

Chas, It sounds like you are in a dead spot for FOX, it is putting out a pretty strong signal now (for me since it went HD the signal has increased 20%) but from what the Chief Engineer has told me there is no power increase and that in the near future they are going to power on their new/high wattage transmitter. We are in the same boat for KHSL. I'm using a fringe antenna on a rotator. I get a signal that fluxuates from 0 to 36%.
I have two Dish DVR 921's which lock and acquire on channel 2-1 but on a couple of occassions, remained on 36-1. I think that there is a big PISP problem that is blocking the audio/video becasue it remaps to 2-1 instead of 24-1? If I change channel to and from 2-1 with the DVR's, they will flash the video for less than a second. I am happy that my Panasonic LCD had the ATSC which is more sensitive and works with KNVN's signal.

Looks like I'm a little late getting back into the talk on here. This is the deal as far as I know it. I have an antenna from Antennas Direct and I've been getting ABC and PBS in HD ever since I got the antenna. My signal Strength for ABC is always about 92%, but for some reason PBS is only about 80%. Right after the world series last year I started getting Fox in HD with a signal strength of about 86%. Tonight (Superbowl Sunday) was the first night I had a chance to check NBC but I knew something was up because it shows up on my guide for Dish as 02-Chann. So I am watching Crossing Jordan right now in HD and full 5.1 audio with no problems. However the HD seems a little water down like watching TNT in HD through Dish. So now CBS is the only local channel I do not receive in HD with my antenna.

As far as the Superbowl, it was a feed out of LA I believe for Comcast subscribers and was only for the Superbowl, that's what I heard anyway.

And as for the Olympics the commercial advertises some channels for Comcast and Charter subscribers and Digital Channel 36, which is what you'd get with an antenna.

I love my antenna and have never had any problems. I'm in a two story building near Esplanade and Cohasset. If you're looking to buy an antenna i would check out Antenna's Direct and just buy the biggest. All the storms and wind we've had and I've had ZERO reception issues.

Also, Dish has new equipment out using MPEG4 technology and will be offering a deal April 1st where you sign an 18 month contract and you can get their top of the line HD/DVR receiver for $99. Right now it is $299. Then you can choose one of their new HD packages. Bronze is their 80 SD channels and 23 HD channels, Silver is 120 SD and 23 HD, Gold is 180 SD and 23 HD, and Platinum is 180 SD, plus all SD premiums and 25 HD channels. Dish is leading the way in HD right now as far as number of channels offered.

I watched Super Bowl XL via OTA KRCR in HD. It was excellent quality except for audio drop outs every minute or so.

The Platinum HD also includes all the movie packages with two that are HD, HBOHD and SHOHD (more added in the future). If you subscribe to locals they all are $5 or $6 more a month and for those in the DMA where Dish Network is doing local HD Lil's, WOW! Too bad were are #132. How long will it take for them to get our local on satellite in HD?

Yeah, I was just referring to the Superbowl in HD in regards to Comcast with the "special" feed.

I watched it with my antenna in HD on KRCR as well.

Comcast (your area) as compared to Charter (my area) is like the universe as compared to a grain of sand!

Comcast now has KRCR ABC HD on 907. It came on Sunday at midnight before the superbowl. It had the same intermittant audio dropouts that you were getting OTA and also reverted to SD a couple of times for a short period. We also now get KNVN NBC HD on 904. It looks fabulous! I believe they are both here to stay and not a special feed as written above.

Yeah, it probably is there to stay if Comcast was using KRCR. I was just told it was only for the Superbowl.

I couldn't find the ABC HD signal yesturday and dont have 904 or 907 listed in the guide, just 902 and 909 for Fox and PBS still. I guess comcast just hates paradise more then chico even though we have the same feeds and office.

I live in Oroville and I see that we are getting KNVN 24 in HD on channel 904.
But I wonder if it is only for the Olypmic games and shut it off again.
I would like to know if we are going to get KHSL 12 in HD.

I am in Oroville. I just assumed that if we had them, Chico would as well. You might try to run a channel scan on your TV if it has a digital tuner. That is how they first showed up before they mapped them to a channel on the STB.

Also, I believe KHSL isn't on the HD map yet. It may be awhile yet. I know they are the same company as KNVN, but they probably got priority because of the Olympics, or maybe NBC forced their hand. Who knows. Maybe someone could shed some light?

I talked to a Comcast rep. and KNVN is here to stay.
So, KHSL should be coming soon.

So what's the verdict? What is Comcast bringing people? My coworker saw the Superbowl on 907 or whatever the channel is and today at lunch when he went home the channel did not exist anymore. So of course the channels who now broadcast in HD locally are going to continue to, but who has the contracts in place to bring it to us?

I'm sticking to my antenna for locals and Dish for everything else.

KNVN is advertising transmitting HD Olympics via Charter and Comcast. I hope that they keep doing HD afterwards.

I just got home and 907 KRCR HD is gone. I called and talked to a Comcast CSR and it was a temporary arangement for the Superbowl as mentioned before. They are still in negotiations with the station and it will be back in the future, but unknown timeline. 904 KNVN is here to stay according to CSR. ABC HD was nice while it lasted. At least I was able to watch SB in HD. Come on KRCR, get it done!

Using my sisters TV Tuner I see KNVN-HD and KRCR-HD but it's just not mapped to the STB, at least here in paradise. Which is kinda annoying since i have a PVR STB, and my HDTV doesn't have a CAM tuner

I'm hopping that they map KNVN before the Olympics in time up here since they missed the Superbowl for us. Guess they just didn't map the channel to paradise in time.

I'm a Dish Network subscriber. I have four ATSC tuners. Three are Dish Networks.

I don't know why, but currently all four tuners re-map KNVN 36 to 2-1. My two DVR receivers do not work with KNVN digital channel. They both show an acceptable signal, both acquire/lock. On the channel 2-1 all that I see is a black screen with no sound. If I pulsate the recall channel (causes a change back to the previous channel) I get a glimpse of the digital channel video in a fraction of a second before it changes to a different channel.

I'm thinking that this is either an encryption problem or a PSIP problem. I have emailed KNVN in hopes of answers concerning the problems.

Does anyone else experience similar problems or does anyone have any knowledge of how to fix this?

Thanks

I get KNVN on 2-1 using my TV Tuner, on the STB it is on 904

KSHL most likely is going high power HD Digital, transmitted from atop Tuscan sometime within the next few weeks. KNVN is broadcasting high power HD from their new transmitter atop Tuscan. Currently KNVN is having problems with the PSIP and are trying to get the mapped channel back on to 24-1. Both upgrades to HD are permanent for our viewing enjoyment.