Charlotte, NC - OTA - Page 26

Not much the local can do about the Olympics, I only brought up the sound during the opening ceremonies because there were some affiliates that did not have the same problems. I'm more concerned about the limited bandwidth for the primary channel for primetime programming such as Las Vegas which suffers from bad artifacts in Charlotte.

It would be nice if they could throttle back or shut down (or just go to doppler) the Weather Plus channel during any HD programming.

Not practical. Requires too much change to the encoder and transport stream..the system has to be designed to do that from day one.. (as in PBS)

"Practical" sounds like an Engineering problem, not the viewers'

I guess there aren't many Grey's Anatomy viewers OTA. Last night's show (2nd part of the post-Super Bowl episode) had Ty Pennington gushing on Extreme Home Makeover's audio during the key climatic segment - wasn't corrected until the next commercial break.

I can tell you honestly that there's no way that we will ever be dropping out of Weather Plus to save bandwidth. And I don't see us ever varying the bandwidth usage based on programming.

I'll look into the artifacting and see if there are any changes we can make on our end. I'm not involved in the decisions about bandwidth usage, though.

That's a shame, hopefully if the HD feed actually starts to provide some revenue through carriage fees, it will be supplied with sufficeint bandwidth to avoid picture quality problems. I think the HD feeds should warrant a premium from cable companies, but not if they aren't supplied as a premium channel.

WSOC had some bad Audio problems this entire weekend. It happened on Saturday during The Green Mile. There was no Audio on the HD channel, and as CPanther95 mentioned, the problem during Grey's Anatomy. It happened on both OTA and through TWC. Once I called WSOC on saturday, it took a while to get fixed, but they were working on it. they kept on switching between Analog and Digital.

I live in Mint Hill off Lawyer's Road and currently have a 37 year old Winegard ( I think) antenna. I get good reception on Channels 3, 9,18,46. Channels 42,55,58,64 are unwatchable most of the time. I'd like to replace this old antenna with a new one and am considering the Square Shooter 2000 which seems like it would work. I do have a rotator already installed. Is the Square Shooter a good choice for the future? I don't have an HD TV now but sometime in the future I will get one. I only want to by a new antenna once. I could get my locals through Dish Network which I have but I prefer not to pay for them. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

thomasjl,
I'm in mint hill off lebanon road..and get all stations perfectly with the squareshooter 1000..I have a commercial quality amplified splitter that is on the antenna as well to feed all of my receivers..

BTW, all stations are UHF, except WTVI which is VHF ch11..

I'm off Lawyers Rd, Just inside Union County near Emrald Lake and I have the 40" Yagi Reflector antenna from Radio Shack. I seem to be getting decent reliability with it mounted in my attic. The Antenna was only $25. I should note that Analog isn't perfect though. How does 36 look to you?

Channel 36 is usually pretty good. Sometimes a little bit fuzzy. I get some ghosting on 3, 9, and 18. I do have trees and the antenna is up on my chimney. Channels 42,55,58,64 are problems but the antenna is very old and some of the elements are crossed because of a tree thats near the antenna. That's why I thinking of the SS2000. It's nice and small. I'm in Farmwood behind the Masonic lodge on Lawyers. The house sits up on a small hill and there are trees across the street and in my yard that may cause issues.

How does the SS2000 handle VHF analog which is what I have today?

If you get locals via satelitte I wouldn't worry about analog locals.

Your right. I can get locals by satellite but I don't want to pay Dish $6.00/mo if I can find an acceptable antenna solution. That's why I'm interested in the SS2000. Its small, has a preamp built in and is relatively inexpensive compared to some other antenna solutions. I don't know when I'll get an HDTV, my current 1990 Mitsubishi performs quite well. When it goes I will upgrade to an HDTV. So is the SS2000 a reasonable solution for my location?

I don't know, it depends on what you expect I guess.

I wouldn't like ANY analog signal, but then again I'm use to watching HD.

I get multipath and ghosting on my analog signals, the SS is supose to be good for multipath, so that would be good for your analog signal. Check to see if the SS is a UHF only antenna.

No its not UHF only. It does VHF but the specs say 10 miles for Channels 2-6. I'm about 30 miles from WBTV transmitter which is channel 3. That one is my main concern. I'm probably ok on the others.

You probably will not get Channel 3 with it.

Well, I found a review of the SS2000 and its definitely not the antenna I need for analog reception. It confirms the issue of not being able to receive channels 2-6 at my distance.

I'll stick with my ancient Winegard until I actually get an HDTV.

When does everyone think Charlotte will receive it's first HD Local News broadcast and who do you think will do it first?

I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly make me watch. I currently watch WCNC for whatever reason, that's just the pony I've picked right now. But if anyone decide to start broadcasting in HD, I'd be there.

I know it would be a very large investment, but a market of our size should be worth it, IMO.

Look for one or two stations to go to HD in the charlotte market by year's end. I heard it through good people that maybe WCNC might go to a HD news broadcast, first, by mid year. I know some people in the biz here, so there might be something said pretty soon.

That would be awesome.

Pardon the interuption on your OTA thread, but I'm seeking D* info on when the Charlotte locals will be provided in HD via MPEG4? My in-laws live in Morganton and want to upgrade to HD service. I've advised they wait until they can get their locals (Charlotte) in HD. My understanding is that Morganton is on the very edge HD OTA signal.

Thanks
Zebras23

With a proper antenna setup they should have no problem getting the Charlotte locals in Morganton. I get Charlotte stations in Winston Salem...that's a good 30-40 miles farther.

Supposed to be 1st quarter for the next 24 markets (36 total). Exact markets haven't been announced, but Charlotte is #27 so it should be in the next batch. I wouldn't think it should be more than a month or two assuming they get all the bugs worked out of the first 12 markets that are already up.

D* just announced the 24 (Charlotte included) markets that will start being added in April:

EDIT:
See link below.

Correct Link
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=648284

I didn't see anything stated about those of us with a DVR HD Reciever. Has anybody heard more about this?

Until they come out with something else, you will not be able to receive them. Once the DirecTV HD-DVR comes out, you will probably be able to upgrade, but expect there to be issues with it.

Does anyone here get UNC-HD? I get the other 4 channels, but the HD channel never shows anything. I have the Fusion 5 and it seems to be doing a good job(it's stuttering with tne new motherboard though) pulling in channels. I live in Davidson and I get everything, FOX is about the lowest signal at about 82%, though it still comes in fine. I'm using the Terk tv32 from CC which really suprised me with howmany channels it was able to pull in.

UNC HD OTA is only available in prime time (8-11 p.m.)