Abilene, TX - HDTV - Page 40

Are you talking about those tiny boxes that they give out free to people who don't have a tv with a digital tuner? If so then those are very basic...and the tuner is no better and likely worse than what is built in to just about every new tv these days. I installed a couple for friends of mine and was not impressed...but didn't notice if it took stereo sound away and replaced it with mono. People with tv's that have built in digital tuners should never use a box from suddenlink unless they just have to have the premium channels, PPV or the premium HD channels. If you hook up a box to a digital tv that also has a QAM tuner, it will prevent you from getting the locals in HD..

Was at a friends house who has DishNetwork. The first half of the game kept going blocky like he was on the edge of loosing a signal. Almost immediately after the game, his screen went yellow for a couple of minutes. When I had dishnetwork, I would get that yellow screen for a minute or two almost every hour. Switching to OTA didn't help in those cases because it was OTA was down too at the same time.

I recorded the game with my DirecTV service and played it for a few minutes when I got home last night. At the begining of the program I got a message that part of the recording was missing due to loss of satellite signal but I didn't play it long enough to find where it was. I was looking to see if I had signal problems at the beginning of the game like he was... I didn't. If I didn't delete it already, I'll fastforward to the location you described to see what I have. At the time I got the message, I thought it was the same 'yellow screen' type issue (don't know what DirecTV does in that case cause I haven't witnessed it yet) that DishNetwork has when KXVA's OTA goes out cause I'm pretty sure both get their signal from KXVA's OTA transmission.

Looks like I lost signal about 6:42 in the third to about 0:58 in the fourth. Not good. I never had a signal outage that long while I had DishNetwork.

Had big time issues last Monday night as well. Of course, I never had to deal with quite that big of a snow storm with DishNetwork (regarding last week's issue) but last night's wasn't that bad. Not impressed with DirecTV's signal fidelity here... or maybe it's a bad install. I still have my OTA antennas up, I may get myself one of those AM21s. I would go loopy if I had been depending on catching that game at home after work or something and missed a gap that big!

Don't know about PBS. Haven't watched that much in years. I do remember that being advertised when I signed up a couple weeks back but it's not in my guide either right now.

As far as the signal drop out, had Dishnetwork for 6 years and I don't think I ever had one last 10 minutes, maybe 5 minutes one or twice, and actual weather related signal drop outs of any length whatsoever I'd say I noticed less than 10 times total. BUT, I had my system hooked up to an OTA antenna and we used that a lot... of course no weather signal drop outs with using OTA. Since Directs OTA requires an additional piece of equipment, I decided to wait and see if I noticed much of a problem before buying it. Well, I know the weather we're having is a little more extreme than usual for Abilene, but MAN...

On D* I lost the picture for about five to ten minutes during the super bowl. I checked the signal strength when that happened and was getting signal strength in the low forties. That is only the second time in all the years I have been with D*. No problems other than that.

I just checked channel 65 and it wasn't there. Went to programming and it wasn't showing as being available. Don't know what happened. We watch it quite a bit, I'll try to find out what happened.

Follow up on channel 65.

After spending time with D* technical support, they tried several things and finally had me do a complete "Repeat Satelite Setup". After doing that channel 65 came back in fine. I had to do that on every set in the house. There were several reboots involved as well as the tech resetting my channels. As you know the complete satellite set up reboots what the antenna reads and updates any new information sent to it in that regard. Anyway it fixed the problem. I wasn't aware that on the D*s home page there is a provision for you to reset your channels without having to contact tech support.

Looks like my signal dropouts were due to a bad install. After playing around in the setup menu, I noticed the 'run system test' and selected that (the satellite signal numbers don't mean much to me since I don't know what they're supposed to be). The system test on all three of my receivers said I had a Satellite Alignment problem and told me to call DirecTV. They sent out a tech free of charge and repointed the dish. In addition to repointing the dish, he replaced the stb, a splitter, and added a extra stabilizing bar to the dish. I noticed as he was flipping through the satellites signals that one was as low as the low 70s but don't know what they all were. Now, all are 93 or better with all but one between 95 and 100. It will probably be a while before I can compare with weather events though. Fine by my.



As far as chan 65 goes, I never bothered to get 65 back on my own cause I don't watch it. But did notice after he was gone that it's back in the guide.

Abilene: FOX Abilene on 15.1 and 42.1; My Abilene on 42.2 and 15.2

Sweetwater area: FOX Abilene on 35.1; My Abilene on 35.2

Stamford area: FOX Abilene on 44.1; My Abilene on 44.2

Brownwood area: FOX Abilene on 17.1; My Abilene on 17.2

Albany area: FOX Abilene on 34.1; My Abilene on 34.2

I'm not getting the .2s yet in Abilene but this is going to be good news all over the coverage area.

Well darn. I'm not a fan of subchannels.

I have just returned and was very surprised to see Fox on an older receiver OTA with readings in the 90's. Wondering if Fox did a new upgrade such as a new transmitter or an increase in power. Anyone know?

They converted the low-power transmitters to digital. I'm a half mile from one and it pegs the meter on my tvs.

Abilene: FOX Abilene on 15.1 and 42.1; My Abilene on 42.2 and 15.2
Sweetwater area: FOX Abilene on 35.1; My Abilene on 35.2
Stamford area: FOX Abilene on 44.1; My Abilene on 44.2
Brownwood area: FOX Abilene on 17.1; My Abilene on 17.2
Albany area: FOX Abilene on 34.1; My Abilene on 34.2

Thanks. That certainly has to be an improvement.

Was watching KTXS 6pm news yesterday and noticed the news broadcast had gone HD. When did that happen? We watch it fairly frequently so I'm thinking it was recent but I haven't seen any mention of it.

KTXS went HD for their news earlier in the week. The broadcast, new set and Laura Madison (as always) look absolutely fantastic.

So does this mean that since KTXS can now broadcast from their studio in HD that they will no longer need to drop to SD while scrolling weather alerts across the screen? That is the absolute most annoying thing any of the local channels do.

Apparently they still have to do that. Already seen it since their news went HD. Very disappointing.

That and forgetting to "flip the switch" and watching the show in sd. They were the first to show prime time shows in hd and now local snooze, nice. I have not had time to watch tv lately, how about syndicated shows like The Dr. Oz Show or Dr. Phil? Are they shown in hd now?

Syndicated shows are still in SD, network programming and first run local news is in HD.

The 2am rebroadcast of the 10pm news is also in SD.

Having just returned and watching KTXS news in HD, I was very disappointed in the quality of the broadcast. Like they were still using their sd cameras (perhaps some better). I suspect that since they have their bandwith so compromised with all of their subchannels they simply don't have enough for a decent HD picture. Maybe it is something else, haven't had time to check it out yet.

KRBC to Launch Network Programmed for African American Audiences

Bounce TV (http://bouncetv.com), the nation’s first-ever over-the-air broadcast television network programmed for African-American audiences, launches in Abilene on Monday, September 26 on KRBC-TV 9.2 owned and operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc (Nasdaq: NXST) and serving Abilene/Sweetwater.

Bounce TV, a digital over-the-air network, will air twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and will feature a programming mix of theatrical motion pictures, live sporting events, documentaries, specials, inspirational faith-based programs, off-net series, original programming and more. Martin Luther King III and Ambassador Young are part of Bounce TV’s Founding Group and Board of Directors.

Bounce TV will feature hundreds of motion pictures with African American leads or story lines, including: Jamie Foxx’s 2004 Academy Award-winning performance as Ray Charles in Ray; Denzel Washington’s Academy Award-nominated role in The Hurricane; The Bone Collector, which pairs Washington with Angelina Jolie; Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues; The Nutty Professor I and II, starring Eddie Murphy; Bowfinger starring Murphy and Steve Martin; Michael Jackson and Diana Ross headlining The Wiz; the 1995 comedy Major Payne with Damon Wayans; Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005), the 1976 classic Car Wash and more.

I just happened to find this yesterday. Right now on 9.2 they show a quick movie clip and then a test pattern. According to the website they will launch Monday at noon. I wish we could get the station "antenna tv", what tv land used to be

I'm wondering how good a financial move adding Bounce to the the KRBC NBC signal will end up being. It seems that the channel would be better served on cable and satellite systems. I agree with you T-bone, "ANTENNA TV" would be nice.

After watching the promos I doubt I will watch much of anything on Bounce.

I did enjoy the Richard Pryor movies, although I would of liked to see "The Toy". They do show some decent movies and Soul Train can be entertaining just the styles alone.

Hello AVS Members of Abilene,

I currently live in LA and have convinced my father back in Abilene to drop Cable and go strait ATSC OTA with a new TiVo box. My parents live near ACU.
I have a few questions:
-Do the main networks (abc,nbc,cbs,fox) broadcast HD signals?
-Are all the signals fairly strong? Antennaweb suggests a Medium Directional for the FOX signal but the others apparently would come in fine with a smaller antenna.
-Is there anything I should know before I finalize my dad's push into the ATSC world?

Thanks.

ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox do broadcast in HD here.

I live on the south east side of town and I have to point a medium directional antenna to the west to get ABC. That antenna alone will pick up the other intermittently. I have to point a small directional antenna at the Fox tower to the south south east that I can see from my house to pick that one up consistently. Once I do both of those antennas, I get them all consistently.

As far as anything else you should know... while I have to say they seem to have been fine lately, at least initially it seemed like these new digital transmitters have been not nearly as dependable as the old analoge. Seems we had a run outages there in the first couple years.

Watching KTXS evening news at 6:00 p.m. in HD. I believe they are begining to get their local studio HD dialed in. I thought the HD picture quality tonight was very good.

I see nobody is up in arms about the loss of faux/my network tv on dish network . I guess that is why they hardly run local commercials and run lots of **** ones like tronix country and western sky. Has there been any news about it? I know when krbc was off suddenstink there was outrage. I get my tv over the air so no big deal, but I was just curious.