Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 16

I have an odd question, so bear with me. I'm a long time Dish Network customer, and pretty happy with everything except the future of HD. It's apparent that nothing new will be added until late '05 at best, and even then that will be on the new mpeg4 technology, which means new receivers. I currently am getting HD only OTA with my TV's built-in ATSC tuner. This is fine, very good actually, but I want ESPNHD, DiscoverHD, TNTHD, HBOHD, etc.

Voom is out now for me until a decision is made on the direction of their company (maybe Dish will buy them if rumors are correct). DirecTV is an option, but would require switching our entire service and losing the investment we've made in DVRs, and my wife is not crazy about switching because she likes Dish so much. So, I was thinking about cable. My question is can I get an HD-only cable package, or would I have to subscribe to their base digital package and then their HD package? I was hoping I could get basic cable and add on HD, but I don't know if that's possible. I already have cable modem, so the physical service is here.

I'm in the Dallas area, if that makes a difference, and the cable provider is Comcast. Thanks for any advice.

Just lease a receiver from dish now. They already have the channels you want, so why worry about adding channels that don't exist yet. There will be no upfront costs with the box, so no worries...

Comcast policies vary from area to area. In most Comcast locations, you can rent a STB for $5 per month, and the local HD channels are included in any cable package, even the least expensive. The other HD channels, like INHD, Discovery HD, ESPN HD, all require a digital tier package, usually starting around $50 per month.

Dish will let you sub to the just HD package by paying a $5 access fee per month, for a total of $20. You get ESPN HD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, and TNT HD. The Dish HD receivers also can receive your local HD stations with an antenna.

I believe DirecTV will not let you sub to HD without a Total Choice package, perhaps others can verify.

Threads Merged.

My head is spinning. I put this in the HD programming forum initially, because it seemed to make sense, then it was moved and renamed in this forum then merged

Thanks for the responses, bgall and Ken H. Leasing one from Dish is an option, however, I'm really concerned because according to what I've read, they aren't adding any new programming until the end of the year, at the earliest. Meanwhile, D* and Comcast are adding HD programming. ESPN2HD is coming soon and I'm almost positive E* is not going to add it. I'm just trying to make a decision that will work well for short and long term, while trying to be somewhat budget conscious.

Send your complaints about WFAA/Belo broadcasting to:

dmuscari@wfaa.com



Issues at hand:

ABC-HD on D*. The inability to subscribe with or without a waiver.

Preempting ORIGINAL network programming for St. Jude(1/7) or Billy Graham

Quality of WFAA-DT.
email: djohnson@wfaa.com

Does anyone have a positive experience requesting waivers from WFAA or are they summarily rejected? I don't get the impression that they'd be very sympathetic even if you have a genuine OTA reception issue. The last time I submitted comments via their website I was totally ignored.

I was granted a waiver by WFAA but D* refuses me DNS or ABC-HD because D* carries Dallas locals LIL. They say it's the new law.

I live in a Grade "B" signal area

What a crock

I also have waivers for NBC, and CBS but I had them before the new law.

FYI I have called D* MANY times regarding this and I did not lose any DNS or HD.

I am in Flower Mound and am having trouble pulling in ABC-HD and also PBS-HD. But my main concern is ABC especially before the big games on Mon. and Tues. I know that Dish Net. has a CBS-HD local they can add if you in the right zip. But is there anything like that for ABC-HD?

Nope, NO ONE in the Dallas DMA can get ABC-HD from D* because WFAA is not owned by the network. Better get to working on that antenna..

What kind of ant?
Apartment or house?

Belo is the debbil

BTW spinguy, I'm in Flower Mound and picking up ABC and PBS HDs just fine right now. Haven't watched them today, so don't know if it was an issue earlier or not.

All good here 77.5 miles from the tower. Sig 90%

thanks for the replies....

I am using the amplified Winegard Sensar II or III...GS 2200. Looks like I am going to have to get the install guy back out to get it a little higher.

Or pointed correctly. That antenna if outdoors in F.M. should be close to 100%

I have seen 100% using that antenna from a customers living room in McKinney.

Just stop watching ABC and send them a letter to the previous mentioned email address and tell them so. If they get enough complaints they will finally listen.

Hi Everyone, I finally did the HDTV thing over this holiday season, and I wanted to post for this DFW group my experiences, in hope that it will help other newbies like myself as you explore the Digital TV world!!!

First of all I have to say thanks to all of you in this thread and forums in general that have helped answer my questions, it has been a tremendous help.

Here is my situation

1. I live in Lantana, TX, (just nw of Flower Mound in Denton County) As a point of reference I am about 10 miles east of Texas Motor Speedway off FM 407.

2. I ended up buying a Samsung HLP5063 DLP Set, which seems really nice thusfar

3. I switched from Dish Network to Direct TV since they seem to have their act together more on HDTV. I avoided VOOM due to the uncertainty of their future and wanting to minimize long-term change

My lessons learned

Most important, you can get lots of good and bad advice, of which I received both, but in the end, long story short you have to do it to see what the outcome is.

For instance.

A) Antennaweb.org said I would need a gigantic Large Directional Antenna on my roof to get signal.
B) the guy at Home Theater Store told me that there was no chance I could pull a signal from an antenna in my attic since I had cool ply.

Both of these were wrong, I got a Antenna included from Direct TV, that they installed in my attic, with the cool ply, which is no larger than the satellite dish itself, and I am pulling the locals in at 90+ strength. The Direct TV guy told me that while the Antenna web site is useful that EVERY INSTALLATION IS UNIQUE, because the Signal Bounces around so much on the Terrestial broadcast. He's seen folks get great signal in one place, and go two houses next door and get no signal. I think that's probably somewhat extreme, but in my case I live approx 40 miles from the tower in Cedar Hill (35 to be exact) and thusfar it seems to be working (Fingers Crossed)

C) You will get lots of opinions on what is good and what is bad on TV selection, for me it came down to going with a recognizable yet affordable brand that looked good in the store and got decent reviews from reputable sources

D) Assume the folks at Direct TV (if you deal with them) generally have no clue on HD. I live in O&O obviously so I wanted to also make sure I got them to turn on the NBC, CBS, and FOX feeds for me as a safety net in case I need them. Many folks told me this would be no issue and they would do it automatically. This was not the case, when they activated my service they did not turn these on automatically , nor within a day or two. So I had to call them about 5-6 times and escalate it to their Customer Service Management to finally educate them on what needed to be done. If you call them and ask for them to turn on the locals I get the feeling they are really resistant to do so because of this new legislation law and they have no clue on the differences between O&O and DNS. So the default answer was NO. When I dealt with their management (not taking no for an answer) they told me that yes I could get them but that I had a technical issue so they transferred me to tech support. Tech support told me I needed to go to the HD Eligibility Group and they could transfer me. When they did the line Dropped! lol! But they gave me the key piece of info,

when you call ask immediately for HD Eligibility Group.
When I did this on another callback I got transferred after sweet talking the front line CSR. AS soon as I got to this HD Group they turned on the channels within 5 minutes. I have also been told you can ask for them at extension 721

E) last but not least, be prepared to immediately want to get a new DVD Player, HD recordable unit, etc if you are anything like me. I see the HD then start reading stuff and find that my older DVD player is past its time, and I want to record again, but the DVR units are expensive Also, the cables to connect your TV properly such as the DVI,HDMI stuff are expensive as all get out from local places. There is a store or two online that you can buy them for a lot cheaper. but if you need an HDMI cable for instance in a pinch and go to your local radio shack, expect to pay close to 100 bucks for it.



When it was all said and done, I got the TV, I got the service, the Antenna worked, and I watched the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl in HD! It looks totally awesome!!!

Goodluck and hope this is helpful to someone.


David

Good summary. Did you get all the local DFW SD channels activated with D* as well with no problems?

Yes I was able to get the regular SD channels from D* without any problems, it was only those national HD feeds that I had to haggle with them about.

Forgive me if I'm totally clueless here.....but I have Directv and get local SD channels (from before I upgraded to HD). I get the digital local channels OTA with an antenna. Are you saying that you can get the digital local channels through Directv? Or are you talking about the national network channels (CBS,NBC,ABC etc channels after hdnet)? Currently, I don't get those...I get the "call for subscription info". Are those the ones you say I should be getting as part of the HD package with Diretv?

Thanks for the info.

You can get NBC, CBS, and FOX. But not ABC. ABC is not owned by the network. The others are and all thats needed is a phone call and they are free.

After reading the last few posts I figured why shouldnt I have the National feeds if im intitled to em. Well it took me about 20 min on the phone first with a CSR who was clueless then she transferred me to the wrong spot and I was finally transferred to the right person. Took them about 30 sec and up pops the channels. I really do think that everyone who is entitled to the channels owes it to themselves to get em. Im paying a minor fortune to D* every month and I figure I might as well squeeze every last channel out of em that I can.

Jason

ps. They gave me the east coast feeds I would MUCH rather have the west Coast feeds is that possible?

Not without waivers. If you are even close to the metroplex you can forget it.

I live in McKinney, TX (Stonebridge Ranch) and just thought I'd post my experience in setting up OTA antenna in my attic to receive HDTV signals. First of all, AntennaWeb.org indicated I would only be able to get 2 digital stations (I'm approximately 46 miles from Cedar Hill):

* violet - uhf KTVT-DT 11.1 CBS FORT WORTH TX 192° 44.8 19
* violet - uhf KERA-DT 13.1 PBS DALLAS TX 192° 44.8 14

I've learned that Antennaweb.org is very conservative. I live at the bottom of a hill, with the hill directed to the south of me. Not a good position to be in since the broadcast towers are all south of me. It was apparent I would most likely need a high gain antenna and a pre-amp. My roof line is quite a steep pitch, thus I was more interested in testing a bow-tie vertically designed antenna first since I could get it to the highest point in my attic. I purchased a DB8 antenna from antennasdirect.com. Also picked up a powered channel master 7777 pre-amp. Picked up an LG LST-3510A HDTV tuner from BB. Installed everything but the pre-amp, did an auto-tune and was immediately able to get CBS (Dallas and Sherman), FOX, NBC, PBS, UPN, WB and several other other independents on HD and SD.

Installed the Channel Master 7777 pre-amp and then ABC came right in with a digital HDTV signal. Could not get KDFI channel 27. Not sure they are broadcasting HD or not. Only problem is PBS signal is always there, but sometimes it gets very pixelated and drops bits and pieces of the image.

_______
rkhobbit

Also forgot to add that I removed the FM trap setting on the Channel Master pre-amp, hooked up the coax from my anntenna to my stereo receiver and starting receiving all kinds of local FM stations

Thanks for the great info....called directv, asked for HD eligibility dept., got right though, got channels turned on....not sure why I need them since I get all the locals here, but if it's something I'm entitled to then I want it!! Heh, heh.

Gotta go....Mavs/Lakers on HDnet!!!

You can get SD local channels from D*, not digital local channels. Digital local channels are supposed to be available sometime late this year after they launch their next satellite. As the other poster noted you can get national digital/HD feeds, excluding ABC.

Hello all,

I'm considering a move to the Dallas area from Denver, where OTA HDTV is a joke. It seems like things are much better in your area.

I'd be working in Garland, so I planning to focus my home search in that general area. Can someone give me some tips on places to avoid as far as HDTV reception is concerned?

Also, can I get by with an indoor antenna in that area, or should I plan on packing up the one on my roof?

And although it doesn't belong in this thread, I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me the scoop on the other aspects of life around there (which schools are good, etc.). Feel free to PM me.

Thanks for any help!

Eric

Squidboy,

Texas could always use some more HD junkies. We're happy to have you headed this way.

The DFW Metroplex is very stable for Digital OTA. You should be fine with a big piece of metal in the attic somewhere as the Garland area is within 15-20 miles from antenna central. I can't speak of personal experience since I live on the west side of town (Garland being East), but you shouldn't have any problems as I am roughly 20-25 miles from the antennas. The only channel I have issues with is the local NBC, but DirectTV solved that riddle by offering the NBC east feed for me. Other than that, I get all the major networks at high signal strength with an antenna in the attic.

As far as Garland goes you should enjoy the area. I landed on the west side of Dallas closer to the airport based on every travel so I can't elaborate too much on the specifics of Garland. I'm sure you have read this site but I thought it may be of assistance.

http://www.ci.garland.tx.us/Home

Let us know how it all turns out and if you have any questions.

I have a Mitsubishi 55613 prtv that is capable of displaying 480i, 480p and 1080i, but not 720p. I am able to get all the networks HD signal. I even get FOX in HD even though they says they are broadcasting in 720p. Is FOX really broadcasting 1080i in the DFW area like ABC does or is my set upconverting the picture. Mitsubishi says my set is not able to do that.

Thanks

Your set is upconverting.