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Abilene, TX - HDTV - Page 25

post #721 of 1213
2/6/09 at 3:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by adb View Post

From what I have read somewhere over sixty percent of the stations in this country do have approval to stop the 17th. Again this is a very confusing bill with lots of ifs, ands and buts and it certainly has all of the earmarks of a typical govt. fiasco.

Today on KTXS dead at 5 they said the station has decided to wait until June to turn off the analog signal.
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post #722 of 1213
2/7/09 at 11:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sprint67 View Post

I don't disagree with anything you said Tigepilot, I was just throwing my blind hope out there.

Also don't forget that Dish now currently does have a receiver that has two OTA tuners plus 2 SAT tuners although you have to pay extra for the OTA module card. It is the 722K. Although I have a long while before I will be able to upgrade to one of those myself since I just added a 722 a few months ago to go with my 622 that I have had for several years.

Let me ask you this (you may or may not know)...I have read Dish doesn't do distant locals anymore and I have always been fuzzy on that whole situation but if we didn't have a Fox station that covered our market would there not be another station from somewhere else that could step in and act as our Fox station even if it was from Dallas, Lubbock, Wichita Falls, etc...? Perhaps the exact definition of what distant locals are could answer my question, but I am not sure.

It just wouldn't make much sense if KXVA folds and our area has no Fox station that we wouldn't be able to get Fox from somewhere else. If there is no competition then who does it hurt?

I would think that if Bayou Broadcasting (the parent company of KXVA) went under and there wasn't a buyer lined up..the Fox network itself would step in to find a solution even if it were temporary. (giving us Fox from another market) Even though we're nowhere near the top 10 markets in terms of viewership.....I think the 165th ranked market in the nation is still too large to ignore for an extended period.
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post #723 of 1213
2/9/09 at 7:44am
Perhaps 93geo could tell us what is happening to the signal strength for KRBC and KTAB. I am getting an average of 35% for those two. Everything else is normal with all other channels.
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post #724 of 1213
2/9/09 at 8:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by adb View Post

Perhaps 93geo could tell us what is happening to the signal strength for KRBC and KTAB. I am getting an average of 35% for those two. Everything else is normal with all other channels.

Is this something that you have noticed since they went down in the ice storm or has this just been recently?

I checked both last night and they are back to 100% signal strength, which is where they were before the failure of 2 weeks ago. I have not checked them this morning.
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post #725 of 1213
2/9/09 at 10:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sprint67 View Post

Is this something that you have noticed since they went down in the ice storm or has this just been recently?

I checked both last night and they are back to 100% signal strength, which is where they were before the failure of 2 weeks ago. I have not checked them this morning.

The signal strength was good last night, it is just this morning that I noticed this happening, I assumed most of it was due to the strong winds last night or something in their temporary fix which might have been affected by the rain.
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post #726 of 1213
2/9/09 at 11:22am
The signal strength I'm getting for both stations here in the Brownwood area is much lower than it was before the ice storm. KTAB is fluctuating from 65 - 75% and in the past it was always at 100%. KRBC is at about 68% and was usually around 75 - 85%.
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post #727 of 1213
2/9/09 at 7:37pm
I live in Wichita Falls, Tx and I have my Antenna pointed towards Abilene, I can pick up KTXS (12.1) and the reading on the meter is 74, and I can also pick up KTAB (32.1) the reading is in the high 70's. I used to be able to pick up KRBC, but not lately. Anyway I think you guys should point your antenna towards Wichita Falls cause Fox (18.1), which to tune it in you will need to put it on channel 15 Digital, it is putting out One Million watts of power as of Saturday. It's in full HD with 5.1 surround sound, I'm using a UHF Channel Master 4800 antenna.
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post #728 of 1213
2/9/09 at 9:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Millar View Post

I live in Wichita Falls, Tx and I have my Antenna pointed towards Abilene, I can pick up KTXS (12.1) and the reading on the meter is 74, and I can also pick up KTAB (32.1) the reading is in the high 70's. I used to be able to pick up KRBC, but not lately. Anyway I think you guys should point your antenna towards Wichita Falls cause Fox (18.1), which to tune it in you will need to put it on channel 15 Digital, it is putting out One Million watts of power as of Saturday. It's in full HD with 5.1 surround sound, I'm using a UHF Channel Master 4800 antenna.

Hmmm, I'll need another antenna to point that direction but I might do that if someone here tries it and pulls it in. As it is now, I have a large antenna pointed at KTXS and get it at 100%. A smaller antenna pointed towards KRBC and KTAB gets me 82-90% respectively. It's the only configuration that seems to get all 3 in for me consistently so I'm not messing with that unless someone here says they're able to do that. It seems if I try anything else I get signal drops.
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post #729 of 1213
2/9/09 at 11:03pm
I tried to to lock onto the Wichita Falls FOX 15 but was unable to receive it. That is not saying much because my outdoor antenna is only rated for about 45 miles at the most. Very interested in hearing if anyone in Abilene is able to get the channel.
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post #730 of 1213
2/10/09 at 5:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Millar View Post

I live in Wichita Falls, Tx and I have my Antenna pointed towards Abilene, I can pick up KTXS (12.1) and the reading on the meter is 74, and I can also pick up KTAB (32.1) the reading is in the high 70's. I used to be able to pick up KRBC, but not lately. Anyway I think you guys should point your antenna towards Wichita Falls cause Fox (18.1), which to tune it in you will need to put it on channel 15 Digital, it is putting out One Million watts of power as of Saturday. It's in full HD with 5.1 surround sound, I'm using a UHF Channel Master 4800 antenna.

Very interesting, thanks. I was wondering if you are not able to pick up KRBC since the ice storm since it and KTAB are operating at reduced power?
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post #731 of 1213
2/10/09 at 8:30am
This could be HUGE if anyone is able to pull in Wichita Falls FOX. I am not sure my antennas will be able to pull it in without an amplifier but I will give this a try this weekend.

How far of a distance is that as the crow flies? 100 miles?
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post #732 of 1213
2/10/09 at 7:22pm
So, are we looking for channel 18.1 or 15 from Wichita falls?
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post #733 of 1213
2/11/09 at 1:25pm
KXVA aired a commercial today - 2/10/09 stating that even though the deadline has been pushed back, KXVA fox will stop broadcasting analog and start broadcasting digitally on Feb. 17 and that viewers without a converter box or digital television will not be able to se KXVA.
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post #734 of 1213
2/11/09 at 2:54pm
I saw that promo too, it was on after Tuesday nights Fringe. At first I thought it was another DTV PSA but then like smile_98 posts it does indeed say the analog signal will be cut off on Feb 17th. *24 will finally be clear !!!!!!!*
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post #735 of 1213
2/11/09 at 3:36pm
HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!!

Never thought that this would happen.
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post #736 of 1213
2/11/09 at 3:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smile_98_atg View Post

KXVA aired a commercial today - 2/10/09 stating that even though the deadline has been pushed back, KXVA fox will stop broadcasting analog and start broadcasting digitally on Feb. 17 and that viewers without a converter box or digital television will not be able to se KXVA.

I ain't holdin my breath ... nope
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post #737 of 1213
2/11/09 at 7:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TX Champ View Post

I ain't holdin my breath ... nope

Read it for yourself. This is the FCC granted request from KXVA.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws....&fac_num=62293
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post #738 of 1213
2/11/09 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mlmahon View Post

Read it for yourself. This is the FCC granted request from KXVA.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws....&fac_num=62293

Aren't you the same guy that told us KXVA would be digital/HD before football season? I'm not doubting you...just saying.
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post #739 of 1213
2/11/09 at 9:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joemama127 View Post

Aren't you the same guy that told us KXVA would be digital/HD before football season? I'm not doubting you...just saying.

Yeah, that's me, but if you read the application, the holdup on everything is that the sale of the station (and KIDY in San Angelo) to Bayou Broadcasting never closed and Sage is still the owner. They had never planned to pour any more money into the operations and got 'snake bit'. It now appears that the close of the sale is imminent and downpayments for the needed equipment have been made.

My guess is they probably decided to go ahead and shut down the analog and install the digital since the savings in electricity alone will most likely offset the equipment costs if they had delayed until June. I don't know if the new digital will be SD or HD but I will try to find out, but even 480i SD will look enormously better than the current analog.

As I've always said, I have merely been passing along info from my contacts at the station and have never purposely tried to mislead.
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post #740 of 1213
2/12/09 at 6:28am
mimahon

We certainly appreciate the information. It is very clear what the problem is and we can only hope that the transition occurs without problems.

Looking at it, it becomes obvious that we may indeed be fortunate to come out with the solution that appears before us. Without the sale it could be a long time before any action was taken since obviously the owner did not intend to put in any further capital.
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post #741 of 1213
2/12/09 at 8:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mlmahon View Post

Yeah, that's me, but if you read the application, the holdup on everything is that the sale of the station (and KIDY in San Angelo) to Bayou Broadcasting never closed and Sage is still the owner. They had never planned to pour any more money into the operations and got 'snake bit'. It now appears that the close of the sale is imminent and downpayments for the needed equipment have been made.

My guess is they probably decided to go ahead and shut down the analog and install the digital since the savings in electricity alone will most likely offset the equipment costs if they had delayed until June. I don't know if the new digital will be SD or HD but I will try to find out, but even 480i SD will look enormously better than the current analog.

As I've always said, I have merely been passing along info from my contacts at the station and have never purposely tried to mislead.

I didn't know that KXVA was still in the hands of Sage...everything I've read previously (including Reporter news articles) indicated that Bayou Broadcasting already took over. I guess that kinda explains the confusion...and equipment sitting in a warehouse waiting to be installed. On the other hand, now that football season is over I really don't care if they do decide to wait until June.
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post #742 of 1213
2/12/09 at 9:32am
Heh, I came here thinking I had something new to report but it looks like it's already known. Here's what I have anyway:

http://www.tvweek.com/2009/02/10/DTVtransitionlist.pdf

It's a list of the 491 stations that will still be turning off their analoge on or before Feb. 17th. KXVA is on there with the date set for the 17th. Noticably absent of any other local stations for the Abilene/Sweetwater area but I don't really care about that so much.

All we have to do now is wait and find out if it's going to be HD or SD. I can say that I'll be happy even if it's just SD and THRILLED if it's HD.
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post #743 of 1213
2/12/09 at 10:28am
Tuesday is the day, I'll see if KXVA is gong to be successful in serving the Sweetwater area with digital programming, either on channel 15 or channel 35 which is currently used to re-transmit 15 to Sweetwater.
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post #744 of 1213
2/12/09 at 8:04pm
Yep, I'll be back to this thread tuesday.
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post #745 of 1213
2/13/09 at 8:40am
I have been wondering something that maybe someone here can answer. I believe KXVA has some kind of repeater tower in Brownwood so that we get the signal fairly strong. (Or at least they used to.) Will that tower still work when they switch to digital?
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post #746 of 1213
2/13/09 at 12:12pm
I know they have one in Sweetwater, it's somewhere around Sweetwater Lake. Instead of broadcasting on channel 15, that repeater uses channel 35 to re-transmit FOX 15 programming. Don't know about Brownwood, but I'm wondering the same thing about the repeater station here. We'll see Tuesday but it's not likely 15 will come through digitally in Sweetwater, based on the quality of analog signal available from KXVA 15 now.
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post #747 of 1213
2/13/09 at 5:12pm
Holy crap!!! Someone verify this!! Channel 81.2 on suddenlink is fox hd!!!! Im watching it now!!!
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post #748 of 1213
2/13/09 at 10:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mamoji View Post

Holy crap!!! Someone verify this!! Channel 81.2 on suddenlink is fox hd!!!! Im watching it now!!!

A couple of pigs just flew past my window and the devil himself called and asked if I could spare a winter jacket! Unless we are having the same hallucination then I think you may be correct. Of course, I just got home and they aren't showing HD this time of night, but it certainly seems to be digital at least.

edit- In case anyone is wondering...81.2 is only for people with Suddenlink basic (no cable box) and using a QAM tuner. It will be a different channel for digital cable users.
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post #749 of 1213
2/14/09 at 1:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ricler View Post

I know they have one in Sweetwater, it's somewhere around Sweetwater Lake. Instead of broadcasting on channel 15, that repeater uses channel 35 to re-transmit FOX 15 programming. Don't know about Brownwood, but I'm wondering the same thing about the repeater station here. We'll see Tuesday but it's not likely 15 will come through digitally in Sweetwater, based on the quality of analog signal available from KXVA 15 now.

If channel 35 is a low power station it does not have to switch to digital. There is no mandate for low power stations right now.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/DTVandLPTV.html
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post #750 of 1213
2/14/09 at 1:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joemama127 View Post

A couple of pigs just flew past my window and the devil himself called and asked if I could spare a winter jacket! Unless we are having the same hallucination then I think you may be correct. Of course, I just got home and they aren't showing HD this time of night, but it certainly seems to be digital at least.

edit- In case anyone is wondering...81.2 is only for people with Suddenlink basic (no cable box) and using a QAM tuner. It will be a different channel for digital cable users.

The sign outside of SUDDENLINK says that KXVA is on channel 706. I'm assuming that's digital and HD since that channel would be right next to the other locals in HD.

I am on DTV using an OTA antenaa to get my locals. Does anyone know how we will be able to pick up this signal and incorporate it in our program guide like all of our other locals? I'm guessing DTV is going to have to make the change because when I tried to re-do my locals via the antenaa, FOX was still not a choice.
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