Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 229

Oh, by the way; the KitzTech amp is working OK now so I took the AntennaCraft preamp down off the mast today. I can use the AntennaCraft for my in-laws' guest bedroom TV setup, which I noticed needed a little help from a preamp the last time my wife & I visited. The weakest signals broke up a bit but were mostly watchable with the coax connected directly to the TV, but started to fall off the cliff when routed through a surge protector and/or an old VCR/DVD combo. Setting the gain control to minimum (20 dB) should be fine: they have an attic mounted CM-4228 antenna over 40 miles from the towers, so there's not much chance of overload.

Those Kitztech amps reportedly have a very low noise figure and seem to perform well. Good for weak signals in fringe areas. But no dual inputs or FM trap.

Yes I had to stick an HLSJ in front to simulate an FM trap before I could crank up the gain without overload. Luckily DFW has nothing on VHF-Lo worth receiving, but that may change with "repacking."

So no more "Punch TV" on 26.2 and "TheCoolTV" gone from 28.2 also? I think I see a problem with these LPTV operators... inconsistent programming. Viewers get used to something and then it's suddenly gone.

Have you heard from either of the above networks? I was disappointed they weren't back on the air last night, but sometimes these things seem to stop for a few days, then start back up again - I assume due to technical issues at the stations.

But you're right about inconsistent programming on LPTVs. It's probably unavoidable with the brokered-time model most of these LPTV stations use. Somebody buys time, gets a station, then maybe they're not satisfied or they run short on cash, so they drop the station, then maybe they buy time on another station, maybe not.... Without a long-term contract it's hard to be sure a network will stick around long enough to attract a loyal following. In DFW (not counting religious/shopping channels), LPTV channels 31, 44, & 50 have come somewhat close to that kind of consistency, but certainly not 26, 28, or 34!

No, and based on previous history, not looking good for their return as more days pass with test signals and color bars.

Got a positive response from KDFW-4 today...

"Thank you for your interest in KDFW FOX 4.
We have expanded our PSIP to five days."

Now if KDFW will actually follow through with more program guide info... not seeing any more than about 10 hours ahead so far.

Interesting; I also wrote them but never got a reply

I'll check this evening. It may take them a day or two to get around to it (although they did say "have expanded," didn't they?).

I got a reply from someone at WFAA today. So my message went through even though I got an error reply from their email system using the link on their web site.

Not sure if the PSIP issue was understood. He referred me to a thread about CM-7000s here on AVS. I replied back that yes I know about the CM-7000 and repeated my point about WFAA's 8-10 hrs of PSIP schedule, and what Ch 5, 13 and 33 are doing.

Not encouraging. I checked one DTVPal guide tonight and KDFW/4 was still at 12 hours, but even worse, KXAS/5 and KDFI/27 were way down: from 5 days to only about 36 hours. I even tuned to each station and left it on for a while, just in case the Pal hadn't fully loaded the guide data, but it didn't improve.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say KDFW and WFAA called their buddies at KDFI and KXAS and said, "can you guys cut down on your guide listings? You're making us look bad."

No, I don't really believe that, but it's definitely a move in the wrong direction. Looks like KERA/13 and KDAF/33 are setting the standard now in DFW, still with 3 days of listings.

Edit 1: I rechecked the guides Friday evening. KXAS/5 was down to 24 hours, but KDFI/27 was up to 48. KDFW/4 still at 12 hours. I'm starting to think they lied to Ed

Edit 2: Rechecked again Saturday afternoon. KXAS/5 now up over 3 days! Which suggests that KXAS enters several days at once, then the guide slowly "runs out" until they enter more. Apparently one of the update times is late Friday evening or Saturday morning. KDFI/27 may do something similar, but they seem to have "settled in" at 48 hours. I'll keep watching....

Other stations seem either to update their guides more frequently, or to send data out only up to a limited time in the future, so you don't see the guide length jump up and down like KXAS's does.
Edited by JHBrandt - 3/2/13 at 1:01pm

Just checking what's there today, KERA cuts off at midnight Sat., about 40 hours of schedule.

Looks like TheCoolTV on 28.2 got replaced with QVC.

Just what we need, another home shopping channel.

Aww ... crap. Though to be fair, TheCoolTV often seemed to be a home shopping channel too

Edit:As expected/feared, QVC is also on 34.3 At least now we know what the Q in "Q Test" stood for.

Interestingly, the logo shows QVC HD, but the actual broadcast is letterboxed SD. Not sure why they don't just go ahead & broadcast it in HD - both channels have enough bandwidth.

Mako seems addicted to simulcasts. They've added SBN (Jimmy Swaggart's network) back to 28.1, so it's on two channels again (the other being 31.1); QVC is on 28.2 and 34.3; Almavision is on 26.3 and 28.3, and Hot TV is on four channels: 22 analog, 26.1, 31.3, and 50.4! Oh well, I guess it's better than test patterns
Edited by JHBrandt - 3/1/13 at 8:44pm

I just give up on these low power monstrosities.... TheCOOLTV was an awesome channel on K31GL, then they changed it to some bullmess. I found hope again when it came on again on KHPK. And now they switch it to QVC???!!! I just give up. God-o-visions, shopping networks, and weird infomercials is what clogs the future spectrum for these channels.

OK, I think I have the history of 31.3 figured out now. It became TheCoolTV back in 2009. Only one audio channel worked, but for those of us who'd recently lost The Tube, it was great. Then TheCoolTV got a deal with Sinclair and pulled out of LP stations like channel 31, so 31.3 went to a Spanish music channel called TeleRitmo. That didn't last either and 31.3 went dark sometime in 2010. Finally HOT TV launched on 31.3 in August 2010 and has been successful enough to remain there ever since.

Meanwhile, TheCoolTV lost their deal with Sinclair and a bunch of affiliates, and so came back to DFW LPTV for a brief period on 28.2. The audio worked this time, but there were way more commercials, including 30-minute infomercials. And when did they start showing C/W videos? I thought there was already an OTA network or two that specialized in C/W (though oddly, we can't seem to get them in DFW). Thus, TheCoolTV attracted few viewers this time around and have now been replaced by a shopping channel

Rechecked yet again Sunday night. KDFI at about 36 hours again, but KXAS was up to almost 6 days (actually about 6 hours short). It's starting to look like they enter the Mon-Fri schedule on Sunday, and the weekend schedule either late Friday or early Saturday, so Saturday mornings & Sunday & Thursday evenings are the best times to search the guide and schedule upcoming recordings on NBC or Cozi....

However, I'm getting inconsistent results for KXAS on my two Pals. The Dish DTVPal shows everything through mid-Friday, but the CM-7000 Pal only shows about 36 hours. If you go further it's mostly "no info available," but I do see a program or two filled in This is only on KXAS; other stations' guides look about the same on the two Pals. Guess I'll just have to check KXAS's guide on the Dish one from now on.

Edit: Did some research on PSIP guides today. There aren't hard-and-fast rules for how often to send guide info, but there are recommendations:

EIT-0 (the 3-hour block including the present time) should be transmitted every .5 second
EIT-1 (the next 3-hour block) should be transmitted every 3 seconds
EIT-2 and up should be transmitted every minute

These recommendations minimize bandwidth used by the guide even if a large amount of data is being sent (as with KXAS). But they mean a receiver may take a full minute to receive more than the next 3-6 hours of listings.

I have no idea whether KXAS follows those recommendations. I suspect they follow the overall spirit, but not the exact timings. I wonder if they transmit the first 36 hours more often, and the really extended listings less often? And I wonder if the CM-7000 Pal cycles through the channels too quickly to download the extended listings?
Edited by JHBrandt - 3/4/13 at 8:56pm

Uh oh... "No Service" on 47.4 the MeTV straight feed channel. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I watch the MeTV shows quite often that get preempted with the local programming on 47.1.

It's back. Never mind. Hope it was just a glitch or maybe an adjustment to get over that video and audio lockup it does when the video gets too busy.
Edited by ed_in_tx - 3/6/13 at 12:11pm

I tried letting TheCoolTV know they were no longer on in Dallas, contrary to their web site showing KPHK 28.2, and the email was rejected:

"Your message to info(at)coolmusicnetwork.com was automatically rejected:
Quota exceeded (mailbox for user is full)"

Somehow I am not surprised their inbox goes unanswered

Technically, that means messages aren't getting deleted from their in-box. It may just be full of old mail (answered or not). That could happen because they don't have spam filtering, or because they set up their email client not to delete old mail from the server.

Of course, from the sender's standpoint none of that matters. You still can't contact them

It would've been nice to get a response, just to find out why they left so shortly after finally getting back on the air here, and whether they may return.

On another topic, here's today's DFW PSIP guide report:
KXAS/5 again gets an 'A' with 5 days
KERA/13, KDAF/33 again get B's with 3 days
KDFI/27 gets a 'C' with 2 days
KTVT/11, KPXD/68 again get D's with 1 day
KDFW/4, WFAA/8, KXAS/21, KTXD/47 - epic fail with 12 hours

I would reserve "epic fail" for those stations that don't bother with schedule data at all. Not just repeating "DTV Program" but "No Information Available".

Since 12 hours of data meets the minimum requirements of the standard I would have to grade that as a "C" or perhaps a "D" if I was in a foul mood.

But how do you grade data that is wrong? I was just scanning through the channels and noticed as I went by that Rick Steves (I think) is on KERA but something about unleashing the power of the female mind is on the schedule. I don't think the two are compatible but I am not going to watch long enough to see.

Having issues watching KTXA Ch 21 right now. Random dropouts, signal varying up and down 80-95. For comparison Ch 11 is perfect, 98-100. Looked on Bob's signal graph from Frisco and it shows 100%. So it has me befuddled. Maybe something more local to me interfering with 21.

Point taken. I hereby upgrade KDFW et al. to a D, the minimum passing grade, And I upgrade KTVT and KPXD to a C- and KDFI to a C+, since they're just below and just above, respectively, DFW's average of 1.7 days.

BTW, I'd be inclined to give credit only for accurate data, but unless it's obviously wrong I'll probably give any guide data the benefit of the doubt. (Judging the quality of the listed programs is left as an exercise for the reader.)

Bob mentioned having wicked tropo last night. And there's an Abilene station (KRBC) also on RF 29, so I'm guessing it was co-channel interference from them.

Under strong tropo conditions, KTVT could experience tropo from Houston's KTXH, but that's even farther away and in a different direction so conditions would have to be just right (or wrong).

I have been having intermittent problems with 21 for a couple of months now. While my DTVPal DVR is having serious trouble with signal quality dropping to zero (skipping everything between there and 80+), a CM7000 is perfectly happy with it. (I am about 15 miles from Cedar Hill so RF signal strength is never a problem.) Most of the time this is only annoying but it is occasionally unwatchable.

KTXA is sandwiched between adjacent channels (KMPX and KHPK) so perhaps that is part of the problem.

Hooked up to the exact same antenna signal and coax, same splitter output or whatever, you just swapped out units?

In case anyone's interested, here's the link to Bob's KTXA signal graphs: http://kb8u.ham-radio-op.net/signal_graph/101A67C8/tuner0/KTXA

Sounds like the DTVPal DVR is having tuner issues. Try recording a show on KTXA when you're having trouble watching it with the DTVPal. If it records OK, tuner 1 in your Pal is the likely culprit.

I doubt KHPK-LD is powerful enough to cause interference issues, but KMPX could cause problems if the tuner is having trouble rejecting adjacent channels. See if you can get channel 31. If ACI has become an issue for your tuner, channel 31 (low power, poor SQ, and sandwiched between full-powers KMPX and KDAF) should be just about impossible to receive.

The occasional dips you see on full power station such as KTXA are due to my changing of the preamps in order to have a means to compare their performance over the timelimes. In contrast, the lossage shown on a low power facility such as K31GL occur when tropo or other forms of QRM cause a failure to lock:

http://kb8u.ham-radio-op.net/signal_graph/101A67C8/tuner0/K31GL

Just replace the call letters at the end of the URL to see other stations received at my site.
Edited by re_nelson - 3/11/13 at 10:46am

Same antenna with a 2 way splitter. With PIP I can view both at the same time and verify that only the DTVPal DVR is having trouble. I don't know why but it also has worse performance on KERA (which has brick wall highpass filtering due to being on RF14) so there is some difference in the receivers.

Most of the time it isn't a problem.

Three hours off is ridiculous! Unfortunately K31GL doesn't seem very responsive to viewer complaints. Was it you that told them about their drastic drop in SQ early this month and got back a response along the lines of "you're not in DeSoto so we don't care?"