Charlotte, NC - OTA - Page 2

A friend of mine with the same problem got this reply from WSOC before both of us got our signal back up. Dunno what was changed.


We have had several viewers reporting a sudden loss of signal. They also have noticed their signal strength meter with variations in signal strength. Each e-mail to date has been west of the city. I watch our channel almost every night at my house in south Charlotte and everything appears normal. We monitor our signal 24X7 at our studios on North Tryon St.and have not seen the problem. Please give me as much information as possible (example location, type of antenna, receiving good ch9 analog and anything else that may help us figure out this issue). We want to find a reason for the sudden loss of signal.

Yes. this is what HD is all about..Tempted to run down to CC or BB so I can see the demo loops on...!

You're right, the only bad part is if they hang on & win this one it's the last HD we'll see unless they make it to the Super Bowl. Going from HD to Fox Widescreen next week is going to be hard (no offense bdfox18doe)

None taken..of course, no additional revenue to generate either!
At least I get to do both ABC & FOX..!

Hi Dale-
Where are you located? PM me info, etc..
Watched the entire game via OTA , and didn't see any problems.

No problems in Lenoir Saturday or Sunday.

I've noticed the same thing. Turned my antenna a bit to aim it more directly in their transmitter direction and the signal was still too weak to lock on. During the brief flashes where I could see something, noticed that ST Enterprise was not HD anyway. Since that's the only thing I watch on UPN, it's not terribly painful (other than the off-topic rant of how the show itself is squandering the franchise), but would still like to know what's going on with them...?

Hey Folks...

New to the HD game. I just had the D* $99 deal installed with an OTA antenna.

How can I figure out if my local CBS will be broadcasting the Super Bowl in HD?

Has anyone been able to confirm this?

Thanks.

Yes the Super Bowl will be in HD. CBS has been showing all their playoff games in HD as well. WBTV has an excellent signal and with the right antenna you should have no problem.

Dale,

I guess it's been a couple of days since your post, but I haven't been on for awhile. And I don't know if this helps. But basically it appears that WJZY-HD was broadcasting a standard def signal for the first half hour or so of Enterprise last Weds night. Enterprise in SD is broadcast in letterbox anyway, so on a 16:9 display you would get black bars on all sides: on the top due to the letterboxing, and on the sides since the overall signal was 4:3. Don't know why your zoom mode weirded out on your MyHD (I assume that's a PC app), but my zoom mode on my Hitachi HDTV filled the screen nicely, although being a SD signal it looked like crap.

Interesting thing is, I called WJZY during a commercial break, and left a message at the switchboard saying basically, "Hey, I'm trying to watch your show in HD and I'm getting SD. If anyone hears this, could you please 'flip the switch' or something?" Well, I don't know if it was a coincidence or if they actually checked the message, but by the end of the next commercial break (~8:30) the show was in HD, filling up my 65" HDTV quite nicely.

That's my take on things. Did everything show up in HD on your system during the 2nd half hour of Enterprise that night?

Charles

hey guys, whats a good site to find some good info and deals on hdtv antennas/stb's? i've got a friend in huntersville, which is mostly adelphia. adelphia doesnt offer hd and doesnt plan to have it anytime soon. He has a sony HD monitor with no hd! lol He's new to this, so he is going to need some user education as well... any suggestions would be helpful...

Buy the Sony SAT-HD300 STB..with a Sony monitor, it offers excellent
integration, as well as seamless blending of satellite and OTA..

Are you sure about this? A friend of mine works for Adelphia in their cable modem dept. He told me a month or so ago that they are rigging new antennas on the Mooresville Headend tower to pick up the DTV stations...

I will check with him again...

t123

***Update***

I just talked to the fellow...He said that the headend equipment is in place. They are waiting for settop boxes and permission from stations to carry before they roll out. He said it could be 30 days could be 3 months...

I don't think the Saturday repeat of Enterprise is sent to the affiliates in HD. There have been reports of this over in the programming forum.

It's a moot point for me since WJZY's digital power output is so low (apparently), I can't even get my DISH 6000 to find the station during a digital channel search, much less lock on solid enough to watch. I live in Pineville and am using a CM 4228 antenna pointed halfway between the two transmitter towers. Can't get WTVI (PBS) digital anymore either; don't know if they're even transmitting the digital signal any longer. Everything else is rock-solid.

cool beans, my friend keeps getting the runaround when he calls in. I went to antennaweb and he would have to get a "red" rated antenna to get most of the channels, which would be too big for his townhome, so he may have to wait on adelphia... is that antennaweb accurate?

You have a pretty sophisticated setup there, Dale. I've thought about a rotor, but that would be a lot of work to set up my antenna on a true mast (right now it's hanging off one of my sat dishes) and run a power wire into the house. And I may just chuck it all if TWC comes out with an HD-DVR for this market in the next few months. As I understand it, some areas of the country, including Green Bay, already have them.

At any rate, I've given up on both WTVI and WJZY. I'm pissed off at WTVI anyway for mucking up the Soundstage show in HD (have stopped my annual contribution because of this as well). They refuse to carry it at its scheduled time (Thursdays 10:00 PM) and can't even broadcast it on Saturdays since they seem to have a perpetual fund drive going on and continually pre-emt it for SD concerts that I care nothing about. I do get WUNG strong and reliably (and their 5 subchannels as well - what can you do?). But they don't carry Soundstage in its proper timeslot either.

OK, just got my sony we610 hdtv monitor, and time warner can't "install" my hd box for two weeks. the lady on the phone says i can't pick it up either... but i REALLY want to watch the super bowl in HD since i have a bunch of people coming over...

i thought i read that some other people picked their HD boxes up... how did you get away with that? did you already have a HD box and just exchange it for a new one, or do you know a way around the $40 install that i have to wait 2 weeks for?

Question 2... If i borrow an hdtv over the air receiver from a friend, will i be able to get the game (on cbs) with a regular pair of rabbit ears?? or will i need one of those $100 bar hdtv antennas to get good reception? I live in south Charlotte (actually right on the border between Matthews and Charlotte). My neighborhood is pretty wooded if that makes a difference.

What is my best bet to watch the big game in HD this sunday? Thanks in advance o knowledgeable ones.

Dale, you are the man. Thanks a lot for the help, I really appreciate it. I went to CC and got an RCA amplified UHF/VHF antenna and it looks like i get channel 23 pretty well (60-70%). I just hope the weather sunday night won't affect my signal. I had no idea about that antennaweb.org site so thanks for the tip... i am new to the HD scene.

one more question... i get wbtv-dt and wbtv-sd... i assume the sd stands for standard definition, but what is dt? and how do i know if the show i am watchiong is in hd or not? I am watching the handler on cbs right now.. the picture looks great, but i don't think it is hd.

Thanks again for the help Dale... my super bowl guests will not be dissapointed.

GO PANTHERS!!!

now my signal seems to come and go quite a bit... i am having a hard time getting a constant picture without moving the antenna every 30 seconds. it seems to go from 60% to 20% instantly. are there any secrets to finding a good spot with constant reception?

from the antennaweb site i got a 'red' for channel 23. is that good or bad?

[quote]Originally posted by chief17
I just hope the weather sunday night won't affect my signal.

That reminds me of something. During all the "storm of the century" crap we went through last week, it seemed that some of the HD transmissions were substituted with SD signals with all the tickers with closings, delays, etc., presumably as a "public service."

I have a big concern that the "wintery mix" (or is it "wintry"?) predicted for Monday morning will cause WBTV to start those damn crawls during the Super Bowl broadcast, including the HD broadcast. I tell you, there will be a lot of pissed off new HDTV owners if they do that.

I called and left a message with the WBTV station manager to PLEASE not pre-empt the HD broadcast with the SD signal to show the frickin' closings. Now, I'm not one to advocate mass protest, but I'm just saying that I did my little part in trying to ensure that my first HDTV Super Bowl (and hopefully not the last Panthers' Super Bowl!) will be in all it's widescreen, 5.1 DD and 1080i glory.

one more question... i get wbtv-dt and wbtv-sd... i assume the sd stands for standard definition, but what is dt? and how do i know if the show i am watchiong is in hd or not? I am watching the handler on cbs right now.. the picture looks great, but i don't think it is hd.

WBTV-DT is indeed the HD channel. If you're seeing it in widescreen, then you're getting it in HD (that is, if your TV is set up correctly -- the aspect ratio should be set up to something like "16:9 standard"). If you have black bars on the side (and you'll see that on shows like 48 Hours, or Survivor), then the show is not in HD and they're just feeding you the SD signal they get from CBS.

TitanTV.com is a good website to see what's in HD in your area. Be warned, however: The local affilates are still getting the hang of things, and sometimes they don't "flip the switch" to broadcast the HD signal. Like right now, Leno is supposed to be in HD, but the guys at NBC6 are asleep at the helm and we're getting the 4:3 SD feed. AAAARRRGGHHH!