Fort Smith, AR - HDTV - Page 4

Talked with my local Cox office today. Cox is adding M-HD, a high def music video channel to its hi-def package at no extra charge, and will be adding "a lot" of hi-def channels here in 2006. They wouldn't tell me what or when, but said I will be very happy. The folks here have been honest with me in the past about upgrades, so no reason to doubt them.

Kimmie-

Anything new on the HD from D*?

Before I talked to Directv, it showed that I was eligible for Fox based on signal strength.

Strangely enough, now it shows that Fox is a Grade A signal.

Needless to say, I'm very frustrated at this point.

Same results here. I'm about a mile west of 540 in Fayetteville and it tells me that all networks are broadcasting a Grade A signal.

I just shot an e-mail to someone at Fox. I've not have any dealings with KNWA, so I don't know who to contact there regarding the digital signal from their station. Also, if memory serves, the NBC station showed a weak signal a while back, now it's also showing strong.

If I get anything from KPBI, I'll pass along.

Looks like more hurry up and wait.

Long and short, Fox has no idea why it shows a signal for them, NBC does have a low digital (but not HD) signal from their KFTA tower. Also, NBC may have HD by late summer.

KHOG pre-empted LOST for a basketball game??????????????? Are they crazy?

Doesn't everyone want to see the Razorbacks? Why would anyone want to watch a new episode of Lost, just shove it to Saturday night after the Razorback recap report. I'm just suprised we didn't have a primetime special on that Springdale QB officially signing.

If you have Cox, I think you could have recorded it on channel 12 (I think), it is another ABC affiliate. It was too late before I thought of it, but I was able to get the first of Invasion.

Just heard from the station manager for KBPI on the question of when they would begin broadcasting locally in HD, and why the Super Bowl was going to be broadcast last year in HD, then suddenly it wasn't. Very interesting and informative email from Marty Houstion (thanks Marty!)....

Hi Dwight,
Thanks for the email, we always appreciate input and feedback from the viewers. The list of folks asking about our plans for HD broadcasting is growing and it is evident that the number of viewers with HD televisions is growing. I completely understand how folks are taken in by the great picture in HD and how watching regular or analog signals is a step down once you have it. I point out to those who ask about our HD plans that HD is not voluntary, it is mandated by the government, at least for over air broadcast stations. The local stations broadcasting in HD now were given a deadline to have their HD signals on the air. Right now you can receive the stations in HD or analog. In other words they are operating two separate transmitters. The congress and senate are working on legislation right now to discontinue all analog television signals by the end of 2008. At that time all of the analog spectrum will be returned to the government and auctioned off to probably cell phone companies and such. My guess is between now and then you will see HD signals, television sets, ect., become more of the standard before the deadline. In the situation with KPBI, we still have not received our assignment for HD spectrum. We are not alone, there are other stations waiting as well. I am told that there is an FCC window opening before that will accomplish that, so we are still waiting. I can tell you though, as with the other stations, once we have the assignment there will also be a deadline to have the signal on the air. Right now, can't offer up much more than that for you. We have discussed a way to pipe in HD signal directly to cable or satellite, but engineers for both sides have not been able to figure that out yet, this goes back to what you were asking in regards to the Super Bowl where we were attempting to provide some sort of direct HD feed to Cox cable. Stay in touch, I will be glad to pass along any updates I receive in this regard. Thanks again.
Marty Houston
KPBI-Fox Arkansas

So it looks like it is coming, just don't know when yet....

Great info to see from Fox, any digital signal from them is welcomed, as I don't bother even trying to watch their signal right now. As for basketball pre-empting Lost, you are now feeling how I feel on college football Saturdays when the JP game of the week pre-empts the ABC coverage, and tape delays the 2:30 abc game when it comes on. Thank goodness for Joplin and Tulsa coverage!!

Watching LOST on a blurry Tulsa station doesn't really compare to 40/29's HD channel. I saw it, but just wasn't the same. I think 40/29 is broadcasting it at 1230am or something Saturday, but Cox guide shows them off air and I can't set my DVR to record it.

Since our FOX station is owned by the same guy who owns UPN and WB, I wonder if they're going HD too? That would be nice. I will patiently wait for KNWA and our FOX affiliate to finally go HD.

When Lost is replayed, it still won't be in HD, as none of the local staions have the ability to record the program and rebroadcast it in HD. Granted, the non-hd digital signal is probably better then the regular analog from cable, but it still won't be HD. Good Morning America is broadcast in HD in the eastern time zone, but since it's tape delayed here an hour, that is why it isn't hd either.

I emailed the station manager for Fox (KBPI) some follow up questions and got lots of details. First are my questions and what follows is Marty Houston's reply. His answer explains why Fox looks really bad at times and acceptable at others (it's transmitted from Little Rock via digital satellite).
Very interesting...

Marty, thanks for the information. I am glad to hear this is coming in the
future. I have Cox, but I get my HD signal over the antenna because it does
not cost anything extra. Are you saying that once you have the FCC
assignment that you will send the HD signal through Cox before you begin
transmitting over the air? Or will this happen at the same time?

Other stations like KNWA have their assignment but are still having to
construct an antenna for HD transmission before they can begin. Does KBPI
already have it's equipment for HD transmission in place or will there be a
delay after you get the assignment to install the necessary equipment and
tower? Finally, will the UPN (KFDF) station also be broadcasting at the same
time KBPI begins or will that be a separate situation?

Thanks,

"Hey Dwight,
Not sure about the equipment part of this. Where KPBI and KFDF are broadcasting from is a central casting master control in Little Rock. There are 42 stations operated out of this facility. All state of the art stuff, digital control room, delivered to Cox via digital satellite. I think some of the equipment is in place, I don't think they have everything for the transmitter. I could be wrong about that because some of the stations in our company is in HD, so it is not like we have not been involved at all in the HD process. Of the stations that have their assignments, as I mentioned, it is mandated by the FCC. They are given a date to have the transmissions on the air. For these stations that date was last April I think. Of course KFSM and KHBS had their broadcasts up before the deadline. I think KNWA put up a digital broadcast to suffice the requirements of the FCC. Right now we do not have a channel position assigned to even put this on. Since we use satellite uplinks to deliver the broadcasts to cable and our transmitters, it would also take special, expanded transponders to make it work. Something I know our engineers have been working on and would be a big help since we are currently delivering compressed video as it is. KFDF and KPBI should both have their assignments at the same time, although I am not certain if one would get on quicker than the other. The HD technology is moving along quickly and I would guess that our process could get moved along sooner than later as well. I will try and find out some of the equipment questions you asked about, again stay in touch, glad to pass along anything that is passed to me.

Marty"

Was just told KNWA will be HD in June.

It would have been very disappointing if they had not shown the Hogs. I hope they continue that policy.....

dmix00,
That guy has no idea what he's talking about. There is NO FCC mandate for HD. There is a mandate to covert to digital, but the stations can transmit any of 18 formats ranging from 480i to 1080i.

arxaw,

You are quite correct that HD is not mandated by the FCC, just digital broadcasting. I think he knows this and was just responding to my inquiry. I wouldn't discount what he is saying though, he has given us much more info than anybody else I have contacted, even if he is a little off on some facts. When I contact KNWA they simply say it is coming in the next 6 months (see jim9251 - coming in June), I got that exact same answer last year at this time and we still don't have HD for KNWA/NBC.

Anyway, lets hope KBPI/Fox doesn't settle for 480i, but at least shows football, 24, etc, in 720p or higher. It still sounds like, as I read between the lines, that it is coming sometime this year (06). This is much better than last year when they said they didn't know.

I was checking my locals at checkhd and it lists wb as coming soon, can any one verify this

I'm a few episodes behind on Lost, but my wife tells me the episode that was delayed from Wednesday and shown last night after the news was the wrong episode? I watched for a few minutes to make sure they "flipped" the switch on the HD signal, but I don't know if this was the next episode or not.

Anyone notice that in Ft. Smith/Van Buren cox has enabled some sort of 480i downconversion on the firewire output if you have it connected to a recorder, such as a D-VHS deck. Now all my investsment in D-VHS decks is worthless...can't record on tape a HD signal from cox for movie channels.

Phototone,
In your user manual for the cable box, the disclaimers likely state that they "may" downrez HD to SD on firewire or component connections, if they so choose. All cable, satellite and OTA HD services have downrez capability, although I've never seen it actually used - at least not OTA or on DirecTV.

What users manual? All I got was a Xerox copy of how to use the remote control.

There is no downres-ing if I connect the firewire to the tv and view the signal. There IS downresing if I connect the firewire to the D-VHS deck. So...I cannot make a single HD copy on tape. I have a legal right to make one copy. this all happened on Sunday. Before, perfect recording.

As of this sunday January 22, I have not been able to make D-VHS
full res 1080i recordings from the HD movie channels I subscribe
to from Cox with Motorols 6412 III.


I just went through the diagnostic menu on my 6412 III box, and
HBO-HD, Showtime-HD, and Starz-HD all have a 5C implementation
value of 1. All other HD channels have 0.

I guess I am just screwed now.

I can't even pass through a 1080i firewire signal thru My JVC 40k D-VHS
from cable box, via component outputs on 40k, just 480i. This is
all new as of Sunday.

I thought that one was allowed to make 1 recording from protected
content (not pay-per-view) at full res? With the DVR cable box
recording not counting?

This is even doubly bad, as I cannot output a "squeezed" 480i
signal to get the best quality DVD recording, which is another
use I had for a D-VHS deck. (as a reformatter) It is all letterboxed within the
standard 4:3 frame.

Just to summarize, any tape I recorded prior to Sunday January 22, is
fine, and plays back in full 1080i from the 40k. Anything I recorded on
the cable box DVR prior to Sunday January 22 is fine and is recordable to the
40k in 1080i. Anything (from Sunday or after) I have recorded on the
cable box DVR, or attempt to record direct on the 40k, or attempt to dub
from the box to the 40k is downconverted to 480i

Does anyone get HD channels with Cox that you are not paying extra for?, and you do not have the digital gateway? I was getting HD on channels 112-1, 112-3, 109-8, 113-3, after the sunday changes those channels went away. now I just get 5-1, and 13-1. trying to figure out what happened, Jim

Until Sunday I was getting Starz-HD, and I was unaware that I had not subscribed to Starz, as I knew I had a movie channel package, but since I never watched Movie Channels in SD , I wasn't clear as to exactly "which" services I had. It seems that Starz was not one of them My wife did all the movie watching in SD. I had to add it on Sunday to keep viewing it in HD. But unless I can get the recording issues solved I am dropping all subscription movie channels alltogether, as I don't want to even have a channel that I can't record unaltered..

According to a post on the HDTV recorders forum here, I may still be actually recording in full resolution, just not able to view it over the component outputs of my D-VHS deck.

Here is what was said:
________________________

It's called the "Image Constraint Token", and it's a bit in the DTCP_descriptor sent in the stream to control the 1394 output.

The stream itself is not downconverted. It's still sent on 1394 and stored on tape as 1080i or 720p. However, when the tape is played, the analog outputs on the player are downconverted.

Most likely this is not intentional. The bit itself uses negative logic (0 means "on" and 1 means "off") which tends to confuse people. Apparently, this confusion exists in the setting of the DTCP_descriptor at the head-end.

Ron
_____________________

bottom line: if you can't watch it in HD, it's useless.

bottom line2: cable sucks.

good day to all....

i am writing on behalf of a relative in fort smith.
he lives on 104th street just off Dallas Avenue on the east side of fort smith.
he is looking for a new hdtv antenna to watch ota broadcasts.
however, i am trying to find the best antenna for the money considering that hopefully by the end of 06, his HTPC will be able to accept cableCARD and we can use that.

now that being said, I am looking at the Silve Sensor HD Antenna.
i just don't know if it will be able to pick up the signal for the ABC, CBS, and ESPN HD channels in his location.
can anyone help me out with this antenna?
has anyone had exeperience with it before?
what are people using in this area of fort smith (if there are people reading this forum in that area)?

thanks in advance for the help.

~d

He may have problems with PBS, which is on the VHF band. The silver sensor is designed for UHF channels 14-69. However, it *may* work for upper VHF channels 7-13, if they're strong. PBS is still low power. ESPN-HD is not available OTA in this area.

There is no such thing as an "HDTV" antenna. Only VHF, UHF or combo V+U antennas.

Enter your friend's address at http://www.antennaweb.org
(UNcheck the "let us contact you" boxes, to opt out of marketing crap from antennaweb and partners).