Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 215

I've watched enough NOVA programmes that didn't go well at all. They don't tend to break up, but the frame rate drops to ~4/second if that. The one on Gothic cathedrals a few months back was notable for this. Television isn't normally supposed to be a series of stills, no matter how clear!

KERA is only putting out about 11Mb/s for the video on 13.1. They could easily bump that to 14 or 15 with no changes to 13.2, and it would really cut down on the tendency of the picture to turn into block soup on high motion scenes. It happens all the time on Nature, when there's fire, running water, grasses blowing in the breeze, or anything else where there's a lot of detail and no real pattern to the motion. The NetVX does a far better job of it than the old Motorola encoder did, but there's still room for improvement, and plenty of wasted space that could be put to better use. DD5.1 audio when available would be nice too.

I often see that problem on KXII/12 (and it's really horrible on This TV on 33.3). I don't see it much on KERA, but then, I only have a 32" 720p TV. I expect motion artifacts would become more bothersome as the screen size and resolution go up.

RabbitEars says KERA is at 12.5Mb/s on 13.1 with another 2.25Mb/s on 13.2, which makes me wonder WTF happened to the other 4Mb/s or so. (UpdateTV can't be taking that much!) Looks like they could add Create on 13.3 and still give 13.1 nearly 2Mb/s more.

Edit: 2.25Mb/s isn't really enough for 13.2. If they stick with 2 channels they could easily boost both data rates to acceptable levels, but to add 13.3 they probably need to use a statmux.

Actually, NO, the entire 19.2MB is used for all channels....(we just discussed that at the DTV seminar at KERA 3 weeks ago...see www.MSWdtv.com and http://www.mswdtv.com/_/VSB_Seminars.html for the info on Gary's excellent seminars, etc.) The bits are just assigned to the different streams.....but the entire 19.2 MB carries ALL the info for any virtual channel, main or sub.....(semantics but lets keep the numbers correct)

Anyone want to see the Harbaugh boys (Ravens v. 49ers) duke it out on Thanksgiving night-- exclusively on the NFL Network? Well, let's let TWC know how we feel. After all, aren't we told that we should contact our provider if we want certain channels?

Email:

Melinda Witmer, TWC VP Programming and chief negotiator ... melinda.witmer@twcable.com

Glenn Britt, TWC CEO ... glenn.britt@twcable.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Huh? You're clearly not understanding the point. KERA is using about 12.5Mb/s for 13.1, out of the total ATSC payload of 19.39Mb/s. They're using about 2.5Mb/s for 13.2. The remaining ~4Mb/s is wasted on padding (nullpackets). Those 4Mb/s could be used to increase the picture quality on both 13.1 and 13.2, but either they don't care, or prefer to broadcast inferior quality. It's bad enough when stations crap on the HD picture to carry lame subchannels and useless services like Mobile DTV (WFAA, KXAS), but it's even worse when they do it and just waste that space.

Ok, just moved into a new house in North McKinney (Custer & Virginia).

I really just want to be able to pick up the networks (CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX).

Went to Antenna web and it recommends a blue UHF antenna (everything is around 45 miles away and about a 192 to 195 degree).

I'd like to go with an attic mounted antenna, but i'm guessing I may have some trouble as the roof has a radiant barrier installed, which I believe is a huge signal destroyer.

Not sure if it's worth buying an Antenna and seeing how it performs (I don't want to go through a huge hassle of ordering online, sending back, etc), or if I should should try and figure out a roof mounted one or not.

If anyone has any suggestions on whether I should give it a try (and if so what I should buy for in-attic, and if not a roof mounted antenna).

Thanks in advance for the advice/help, please let me know if I didn't provide any vital information that is needed.

You need VHF for ABC (WFAA) on channel 8.

You're right, I missed it hiding in there, does that complicate things or just affect the choice in antennas?

You need UHF/VHF capability. My brother is in McKinney and has an attic UHF antenna and yet is capable of getting WFAA though I was unable to do so here in N. Plano (I'm also using a dual band traditional aerial in attic which picks up everything).

You'll need a decent VHF high/UHF combo, and will either need to create a "window" in the radiant barrier to allow signals through, or else put the antenna on the roof. Attic, I would go Winegard HD7696P or ChannelMaster CM2020, roof you can probably get away with the HD7694P or CM2018.

Any suggestions for a professional installer for a roof antenna? I would like get my parents an HD antenna for their 55" screen. The Cowboy Game in SD was painful to watch on Thursday on such a large screen.

Mostly just the choice in antennas.


All those are good antennas. Other good ones are Antennacraft HBU-44 (attic) or HBU-33 (roof). The HBU-33 is available at Radio Shack, I think. The others are usually available at Fry's.

I've also had good luck with the Channel Master 4228HD in an attic, also available at Fry's. The 4-foot-square 4228 might fit in the attic more easily than those 10-foot monsters.

Check with Ray Estrada at TekMax in Plano, phone (972) 584-0272. I've had them do two antenna projects for me. The work is superb, the staff is excellent and the price is very reasonable. And Ray actually knows what TV Fool is.

Not a huge fan of the 4228HD for VHF. Not much gain or directionality.

It's not the best for VHF-Hi, true. It's worked acceptably for me, but then I'm the kind of guy that pulls out the wiring harness connecting the two halves and replaces it with two baluns, 3' cables, and a splitter in reverse.

In one case its lack of VHF directionality actually worked to my advantage. I put one in for my in-laws in Stroud, OK, about halfway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. They're closer to the OKC antenna farm so I pointed it that way. It gets all the OKC stations in both VHF and UHF bands - but also gets a usuable signal from KTUL on RF 10. It's almost bidirectional at that frequency.

Whatever was wrong with KWDA that caused this problem seems to be fixed now. Everything that used to show KWDA as channel 21 now shows channel 30.

The channel mapping is a little odd:
There is no 30.1 or 30.8. Whatever.

Edit: Well, over the weekend they added a 30.1 and 30.8 to their lineup, for a total of 9 subchannels! The color bars moved from 30.9 to 30.1; 30.9 is showing Spanish infomercials while 30.8 is showing a teaser for a new African-American-themed channel, Diicon.

They seem to have overcrowded their bandwidth. There's a "channel available" teaser running on (I think) 30.4 which looks terrible - even worse than This on 33.3!

You don't need an "HD antenna". An antenna is an antenna. Not having an HD antenna won't give you an SD picture. If you're already getting a solid picture now (not freezing up) with your existing antenna, then an "HD" antenna won't give you any better picture.

TV - Sanyo DP42840 LCD 42"

Antenna: RCA 751R - Mounted in Attic, above a 1 story home, about 10 feet above ground, no amplification.

Std. cable, about 70 feet to TV.

Location: North Central Irving, about 20 miles from the Cedar Hill Towers.

Digital channels scanned:

2
4
5
8
11
13
18
21
23
27
28
29
30
31
33
34
39
44
47
49
50
51
52
55
58
68

For those of you that just simplly can't do an attac or outdoor antenna then ck out this one. I saw this at a seminar recently and bought one. For an indoor it does seem to perform better than any other I have seen in VHF. It is in kit form so you have to assemble. Comes in a small box so don't let that fool you.
Digital Antenna
DUV-Indoor Model
Model No. DUV®-IN
Made in the USA

http://digitenna.com/SpecSheets.pdf
http://digitenna.com/products

Seems like it was about $50
JStigler

Have you compared it against the Winegard SS3000?

Heard Universal Sports on 5.3 is moving to Cable in the next couple of weeks and will no longer be offer OTD. Here's to hoping they make the switch to Me-TV. BTW, I think Me-TV would be a great fit for 52.2 and surprised they haven't tied it into their Classic theme. You have to think the Network with the 3rd highest coverage will land in DFW soon, so why not scoop it up?

If 5.3 goes a different way, I would say The New Country Network or Bounce look like good DFW demographic fits. What ever it becomes I hope it's an English station. I already pick up 24 Spanish stations or 35% of what I get and I get all (some on and off) but CH50 which I believe airs 2 more Spanish Stations. According to Wiki, 22% of our population is Hispanic, although their number is based on 2000 data, so I'm sure it's up around 25% today. That tells me the population is over served and hence I feel it is fair to make the statement that I am hoping for an English station.

I hope it goes away and the bandwidth gets reallocated to the HD channel. PQ has been kinda crappy since they launched the useless mobile DTV stream.

Midnight tonight. (Dec. 31)

Speculation around here is that London Broadcasting will be bringing Me-TV to KTXD/47 soon. It wasn't there as of yesterday though.


I doubt NBC would put a Spanish station on KXAS; they'd most likely put it on KTXT (Telemundo) instead.

BTW, 50.2 (Reino Unido) is Spanish; 50.1 (MTV Tr3s) is bilingual (English w/ Spanish subtitles or vice versa depending on the specific show). 50.3 (AMGTV) and 50.4 (Hot TV) are English.

Idiotically, as of yesterday they were simulcasting Nonstop on 5.2 & 5.3. Only difference is that 5.2 is 16:9 while 5.3 is 4:3 letterboxed.

Complete waste of bandwidth. If they want to keep the subchannel but don't have anything to air right now, can't they at least dig out their old NBC Plus weather equipment and use that until they're ready to air something new?

Interesting how they folded the bowtie. The spec sheet indicates its performance is equivalent to a theoretical dipole across most of the VHF-Hi and UHF bands, so it seems to have excellent bandwidth.

There's a minor discrepancy between the products page and the spec sheet. The former shows a DUV-C model, but the latter lists that as the DUV-S (suburban) model. All their outdoor models have both a UHF corner reflector and a VHF reflector; nice touch.

The spec sheet also lists a DUV-M (metro) model that's not on the products page. It's designed as an "outdoor" model but it looks small enough (about 2' x 2') to use indoors if you could rig some sort of stand for it. If their indoor model isn't enough for you the DUV-M might be worth a try.

RE 5.3 per NBC 5.
"At this time, NBC 5 has decided that we will not add another channel in
its place".

I have always thought a good idea would be to simply air the local news in repeat mode untill the next telecast. Any idea why no one does this?

I also like the idea of airing a time delay of 2 to 3 hours on a Sub. But I'm told DVR's are today's answer to time shifting. My response, I like to Channel Surf and I can't surf on a DVR.

Same thing ABC does on their O&Os, and it's just as stupid here. Just give the bandwidth back to HD and let us enjoy a slightly less molested picture, especially with NBC carrying the Super Bowl this year.

Legal issues having to do with rights to air the programming (and fees paid to do so), ratings, and advertising. Not enough money to be made to make it worth the time to deal with it.