Cedar Rapids, IA - HDTV - Page 5

Haven't noticed the aduio drop out issue every minute, but it does seem to happen regularly (while watching KGAN live or recorded HD with my HD-Tivo) about a minute after every commercial break (sometimes more frequently then that).


RE: KCRG Sunday Evening observations

I watched both Desperate and Grey's last night (via the HD-Tivo) and had only one instance of pixelization and one of dropped audio... otherwise both looked great.

Was 24 in HD last night?

It was for me, OTA, I didn't watch it all, just looked in during breaks in the basketball game.

It was in SD for me I'm sure. All the commercial were stretched as well, which isn't normal.

24 was in HD on Mediacom. I would be surprised if it wasn't OTA....

True. But one thing about KGAN, with little money and few toys, I'd rather see a cheap drag across the bottom of the screen, because I get real tired of the "dueling weather/radars" of KCRG/KWWL. But yes KGAN IS at the bottom of my list also.

But, at least KWWL is capable of putting their own bug on the HD feed (even if they keep it on the screen WAY too long). KGAN goes to stretch-o-vision at around 9:40 Central every night to put their KGAN/Local News bug on the screen. 9 times out of 10, they remember to "flip the switch" to go back to HD, but that 10% when they don't switch, bugs me to no end.

I will say, though, that I haven't seen as many audio sync issues on KGAN as I used to. I might have to fire up my old Sammy 26" to see if it's just my new TV that handles it better, or if it's actually less noticeable.

As someone else mentioned a few months ago, now that they've gotten the picture and sound quality up to decent levels on The Tube, it's gone commercial, too. I see commercials more often than music on The Tube nowadays (though I don't stick around and watch for hours at a time to know how long).

Not sure about KCRG, as I pretty much only watch the news and Friends on that channel; they don't have any PrimeTime programming that piques my interest, and they no longer have football.

I just hope that Fox finally fixes the audio issues on their HD baseball programming. Their NASCAR coverage is still quite excellent.

Okay, I'm done whining for now.

KFXA HD on channel 828 on Motorola 6412 Phase III in Waterloo is definitely not in HD for me. We just watched Idol and it was stretched SD. All commercials are also stretched. Last night was the same including 24. The audio also is not 5.1.

Is anyone else, especially Waterloo Mediacom customers having this problem?

Does anyone know if a STB can fail to properly tune 1 channel in HD?

Mediacom rep wanted to send someone to my house, but i finally convinced her to get a Waterloo tech manager to call me tomorrow instead. I highly doubt the problem is at my home.

Edit. The last time I saw FOX in HD was during the Nascar race on Sunday. Which looked great.

Must be a Waterloo thing. I just watched my recorded American Idol in brilliant HD recorded off of Mediacom in CR with the MyHD card.

Not getting HD on FOX-28, either. I have Mediacrap in Dubuque. So, it must be a KFXA problem!!!

Does Dubuque and Waterloo run off the same head-end?

I can't understand how CR can be fine, but Dubuque and Waterloo is not. Since it's ok in CR I would guess it's Mediacom's problem and not KFXA.

Even if Dubuque and Waterloo are on separate headends, it is very likely that they are importing some of the local channels from another headend where they get better reception. Last I knew the Waterloo headend was using KDIN from Des Moines instead of KRIN. They were picking it up at Iowa Falls and bringing it over on fiber. KFXA-HD on Dubuque Mediacom very well could be fed from Waterloo via fiber.

Brilliant diagnosis! Did you see my post a couple before yours that said everything is fine on CRs Mediacom?

KFXA must do some magic to only mess Dubuque & Waterloo up!

BTW, "House" looked great in HD and I laughed my rear off!

I see so many complaints about medacom. I know it is not possible for some to have a dish, because of location etc. I know dish is not perfect, but is much better than Mediacom and cheaper. I read a consumer report that had Mediacom listed as the worst cable company in the nation. I am not saying a dish is best for everyone, but if you are unhappy with Mediacom it is worth alook.

I've looked into Dish and Direct TV, but fail to see where they are less expensive than Mediacom. Especially if you want HD and DVR. The the sat companies you have to add $399 up front expense to get the HD-DVR box.

There are pros and cons to both. I had Dish a couple of years ago and got tired of the storm outages as well.

Just need to figure out which system delivers the best overall package I guess.

I'm lucky enough to live in a town with a local cable system - I'm very happy. That said, I have a friend in town who just moved back from the west coast - after analyzing all the options, he went with Dish - with his numbers it came out cheaper than MC or the local.

ts - are you sure about the 4 bills up front - DTV tried to get my mother in law, who didn't even have an HD set, to get the dvr box when she added a second set, for free. same with hd box. I would hate storm outages, but I hated MC outages also, which is why I went to local cable as soon as they had wires in my neighborhood. Thanks, Joe.

Keep in mind that DirecTV has implemented a new equipment lease policy. I don't know all of the specifics, but if I understand correctly, you buy the receiver, pay a monthly "lease" fee, and you return the equipment when finished or get charged huge amounts for it.

That may not be entirely correct, but I think that's the general premise.

Smokinjoe,

I think the problem you were seeing should be fixed now. It was a strange issue and was tough to find. We had our multiplexer set to allow for the most efficient use of bandwidth for our signal which was supposed to help receivers to receive our signal better. What we found is that there were some receivers that did not like this setting and it would display the picture as a strobing or jittery picture. It had no effect on SD and only on certain HD content, so it was hard to catch. I am only aware of a couple of tuners which had this issue, one being the Zenith HDV420 and another being the Samsung TX-P2670WH. The Zenith HDTV's with the built in tuner worked fine - go figure. I only knew of about 5 people who were having this issue but I assume there were more that just didn't let us know. I am assuming the problem is fixed so let me know if you still see the strobing picture.


If there are any other people that saw this issue I would like to know what make and model equipment you are using so that I could document the problem better.

Thanks,

KirkTV

Following up on the KFXA problem on Mediacom, Dubuque & Waterloo. I talked with a few friends who have DirecTV. They say they have had the same problem: KFXA is in SD not HD!!
Could it be the Mediacomm--Dubuque & Waterloo are getting KFXA off DirecTV??? I know the Dubuque is OUTSIDE the contour for OTA reception. Hummmm. Oh, well I wish they would get this fixed either way. I tried to call Mediacom this aftrernoon, but had no luck getting to anybody who could help.

I talked to a Medicom tech supervisor in Waterloo yesterday about KFXA. He wasn't even aware there was a problem. I swear, everytime I call I get "not all programming is in HD". I get so tired of hearing that. I told them I'm not an idiot and am quite aware of what shows are HD and which are not. I was supposed to get a call from the head end tech engineer, but of course they had someone call that had no clue. He did say he would talk to the engineers.

He did also say they are trying to locate the problem with KWWL-Mediacom.

I'm getting close to calling the Waterloo Gen. Manager at home. I can understand there will be problems, but they don't even know when they have problems.

Maybe it's because DirectTv does NOT carry our local stations in HD yet! Unless I haven't heard about some amazing break thru from DirectTv, I don't think we are suppose to have HD locals until at least the end of the year.

Your friends are probably talking about the regular locals feed from DirectTV. Don't have a thing to do with your MediaCrap problem.

I'll say again.... KFXA has been HD all week for me on Mediacom in CR (House, Bones, American Idol, Prison Break). There is A PROBLEM WITH THE MEDIACOM-KFXA LINK IN YOUR AREAS!. It is NOT an overall KFXA problem and I'll betcha it's a Mediacom problem.

I will see if the KFXA CE has any knowledge of the apparent problem with the Waterloo/Dubuque feeds.

As far as I know, DirecTV doesn't do HD locals in this market yet, so any D* subscriber who's watching KFXA in HD is getting it off air, just as I'm sure most cable headends are. Nothing would surprise me, though ... perhaps certain Mediacom systems are tuned to 28-2 instead of 28-1 by mistake?

As for the contour, I've been wondering about Dubuque myself, especially since KFXB Channel 40 stopped carrying Fox there. Not only does the FCC's estimated contour for KFXA-DT not quite reach them, but they use channel 27 to broadcast their digital signal -- the same channel as WKOW's analog station in Madison. (That conflict will end when analog ends, since WKOW has filed to use its current digital channel 26 after the transition.) In fact, if you look at the map you can sense a little directionality in the signal which doesn't favor Dubuque.

Having said that, these maps are just estimates, and there are cases where you can get reception beyond that contour using the right antenna, which Mediacom certainly has. I remember spending a night in Fort Madison (the Super 8, not the prison) once and seeing KCRG analog on cable, even though the FCC's map has their contour stopping well short of there.

Thanks Kirk,

When I watch the next KCRG HD program, I will post the results.

Smokinjoe

Well, I just sent an email off to Doug Nix who I believe is the General Manager of Mediacom in Waterloo. I don't know that I have his email address correct, but I guessed it based on the format used be other emails I have received from Mediacom employees in the past.

I hope it actually works.

Boy, when I see you guys' problems in your market area, it makes the Quad-Cities look like a top 10 market I feel for all of you.

Master control is asleep again!

Yep, I'm a DirecTV customer in Fairfax, and I have to get KFXA HD OTA. Have had no problems of late.

Key word here... OTA (Over The Air)!

Unfortunately there seems to be some people who think because they are a DirectTv customer, that they are getting the locals in HD thru them, when in fact it is just plain 'ol OTA!

Nobody around here is getting our locals in HD thru DirectTvs satellite service and if they tell you they do, then they don't know what they are talking about.

Is anyone else haveing problem hearing the announcers speak on 2-1 for the Master's coverage? If I switch to 2-2 it seems to be fine.

Thanks,
John

The sound came back shortly after I sent the original message 8^)

John