Greenwood, MS - HDTV - Page 6

Tonight is first time in several nights I've been able to see WXVT airing David Letterman. HD Testing appears to be working well. I've not been able to verify anymore since Monday morning about daytime programming while tropo scatter allows.

Cool. I watched some Letterman as well, for the first time in ages. The picture looked pretty good. His show was rather fuzzy looking, though. Commercials were razor sharp.

I also got about the first 2/3rds of the newscast in as well. Man, what a difference. It looks like a real modern TV newscast now! The colors and whiteness were balanced and the graphics looked sharper. Nice.

There's been some hope expressed about WABG hopefully modernizing with the buildout of the WNBD facility, maybe this will put some pressure on them. When they added the Fox subchannel, I understand they had to build a small control room at the tower (instead of in-studio) so I don't know why the Fox feed managed to look as bad as the ABC feed. Local content and all Fox content has audio problems, as well. It's very very watery and sparkly sounding, like very low bitrate internet audio.

My next task will be trying to get Tribune to show the HD tag correctly. They show all the Fox content as HD and all the ABC content as SD. It's actually the other way around.

When I was getting WABG-DT back in late 2005-early 2006 they weren't doing the FOX subchannel. They added that rather quickly later in 2006 when FOX Net stopped their cable only service (somewhat like the current CW+ service on small-market CW stations and cable-only). I still have some screenshots somewhere of WABG-DT when strong tropo conditions permitted me to get WABG (digital) including the static slide "Delta Fox" before "6-2" started airing full-time programming.

WXVT: I did an comparison between 'XVT and my "local" CBS station, KTHV Little Rock (AR) which did require turning the antennas. With Letterman on, both stations looked the same as PQ went, although with my "hamshack" LCD TV using its built-in tuner the WXVT signal was hit and miss (the converter box was decoding better with the weak signal--but no hi-def output). I then temporally connected the feed direct to the TV (bypassing the splitter) and it made a difference and was able to get full decoding and therefore could watch in HDTV for a while. However this morning there is no tropo at all and cannot get WXVT to decode (only seeing the signal show low on the meter below decoding threshold).

Good luck in getting the Tribune listings corrected.

Is WNBD-LD on the air now? An FCC filing indicates it should be.

- Trip

I checked for any sign of a signal on RF 33 this morning and nothing so far. WABG (WNBD's sister station) has been covering progress of the "NBC 33" project on their website from time to time.

Hopefully WNBD (RF & PSIP 33) will be testing their broadcast signal soon.

Nothing this evening when I checked, although the coverage maps show Grenada being well outside the main coverage area.

The station will be up on Nov 1

That figures, it'll be up and running about a week after I leave the state.

I hope they get quick carriage on local cable companies. I was surprised to learn that CableONE in Grenada is carrying WTVA and MPB in HD via clear QAM. Previously they'd only carried WABG in HD. With WXVT passing HD and this soon to be NBC affil. up and running, they better have room for two more.

Something is lit up on RF ch 33. Either a too-weak to decode WCFT Tuscaloosa AL or a weak signal from WNBD-LD testing. I can't seem to decode WXVT either though even moving the antenna toward the 'XVT site.

That tall tower and WABG antenna array may surprise some folks with the new NBC 33/WNBD assuming its them testing tonight. Anyone closer to the Inverness site seeing a signal on RF 33 tonight?

Update: 11:25pm. WNBD-LD is on the air, as it was decoded here first at 11:05pm. However its only a 16x9 test pattern with the callsign and "33-1"

TV doesn't change much in the Delta, as evidenced by the lack of a post here since 2010 So this isn't exactly HDTV related but it may bring some improvements to the market.

WXVT is being sold by Saga Communications to a company called H3 Communications, for $3 million in cash. H3 is run by three members of the Harker family. Their father, Charles Harker owns Commonwealth Broadcasting, who owns WABG and WNBD-LD. This means all three Delta stations are owned by the same family now through two different companies.

I reckon this means WXVT will start sharing resources with WABG.

Geez. No comments since my last post in May 2012? *crickets*

I noticed that Commonwealth has ANOTHER LDTV station licensed in the Delta, this time to Cleveland: WFXW-LD. It's broadcasting with 300 watts from the WABG TV tower in Inverness and doesn't reach Cleveland or anywhere noteworthy for that matter.

I'm guessing by the calls that it's a Fox station. Has WABG moved Fox to here from 6.2? If so, that would mean the four biggest networks are now available OTA and possibly in HD locally in the Delta for the first time ever. It's about time!