Cedar Rapids, IA - HDTV - Page 157

How many people use clear QAM for HD though? 10? 20? I just don't see it being a big enough issue for people to switch.

"I don't have 4-wheel drive on my vehicle, so other people don't need it, either, especially in Iowa."

I'm one of many people who use the QAM tuner on my TV. It's about 100x more reliable than an antenna ever will be for locals in HD. If my bedroom TV had a QAM tuner, I'd use it, too, and I rarely watch locals on that TV when the weather is bad.

For people with more than one TV in the house, being able to use the QAM tuner instead of needing a STB on every single TV is a very attractive alternative. I'd switch to ImOn in a heartbeat if they were in my neighborhood, almost exclusively because of their selection on QAM.

My installer couldn't get a full test return with the filter in place, and he didn't seem too interested in climbing the pole to put it back on when he was done registering my service, either. I wasn't about to complain.

The filters might let the signal through, but not at the level that the test equipment wants it to be at.

Heh, if you insist. It's not like I worked for them for 4 years and installed probably hundreds of basic+HSD traps. They might have been out of them, or the tech might have gotten an old one which was failing. That doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't used in Cedar Rapids.

Whatever you say, I'm sure there is a huge market of people who can afford HDTVs but don't want any features such as PPV ordering and DVR service, guide data, etc. I'm sure all 10 of them are up in arms about this.

Methinks you severely under-estimate the number of people who don't want to pay a monthly rental fee per box to have PPV and DVR on every single television in their house.

Then again, you talk about "people who can afford HDTVs" as if people still purchase analog TVs and SDTVs, as if manufacturers still even make them, or as if an HDTV even costs thousands of dollars. There are 36 different models of HDTV on one major retailer's website that sell for under $200. Welcome to 2011.

And people who spend $200 on an HDTV will be fine with the SD content that is available in Clear QAM. For instance I have a family member with a recently purchased HDTV (this is a 52" 1080p 120Hz job that cost upwards of $1000 recently) that has their Mediacom HD DVR connected through RF out to their TV. Best Buy also sold them the blue-ray player but since they didn't want to get the $100 Monster HDMI cable they sold them the yellow/red/white audio video cables to connect it to their TV. Simply put most people just don't care.

You are making the common mistake of confusing the interests of people who frequent an Audio/Video enthusiast website with those of the general population, and I assure you, those two sets of interests could not be further apart.

IMHO, I believe most people want to get their money's worth for their investment. They sometimes do not have the expertise to achieve that goal. If someone takes the time to show and explain to them the differences in quality between RF-modulated video, composite, component and HDMI.
Store salesmen compound the problem because they usually don't care.

Remember, at one time we were all 'DTV-ignorant'. We learned through communication with those who did know.

sgarringer weaves a decent enough tale, but there are two major problems with the story.

a) Best Buy offers and sells many different non-Monster HDMI cables for less than $20.

b) Blu-ray Disc players already come with a red/white/yellow cable in the box.

It takes a special kind of a person to not to want to help educate their fellow family members on such a purchase to get the most for their money.

Like you mentioned, tvguy01, most people can tell that they're only putting a 4:3 SD picture onto a 16:9 HDTV, and most people DO care, even without someone pointing out to them that there's a better way.

5 minutes of education would show them that they can use cables already laying around the house to at least get 3/4 of the way towards the goal of a the best quality picture. Because, even if they DID buy a red/white/yellow cable separately, it can still be hooked up to the component R/G/B connections. There's nothing special or magical about RCA component connections and wires.

I can not believe how many of you are still with Mediascum. I switched to Direct a long time ago and could not be happier. I know Mediascum has fast internet and that might be a reason to have them. But there cable is joke compared to satellite.

Can people actually GET the local Fox station OTA out in northern Marion? I've just moved into the area and expect that once the family moves down in March or so we'll hook up DirecTV like we have in the Minneapolis area, but for now I'd like to stick with OTA while I'm pretending to be a bachelor and save some money. I've had no trouble pulling in channels 7, 9, 12, & 68, but nothing else comes in. Since I'm interested in watching the Super Bowl next week, the Fox station is of definite interest, but it doesn't (as far as I've been able to pull in) seem to exist. Help!

You might or might not know about this site, but if you haven't checked it out, go to
http://www.antennaweb.org/ and it will show you the directions from your location to each of the broadcast stations within your viewing area, so you can try to adjust your antenna accordingly.

I have a question actually related to the Forum topic.

Do any of you RF techs/engineers working in "the biz" here in eastern Iowa know why frequently my OTA channels 9-1 and 9-2 experience frequent break-ups, but only after the 10:00 news? They're solid as a rock, with 85-90% signal strength, the rest of the time. When I check the signal strength it still says 85-90%, but the break-ups still keep happening.

Mike

I think that the digital stations have the capability to dynamically allocate their bandwidth across their main and sub-channels, but I don't know if KCRG uses that functionality. If they do, then maybe they bump up the bandwidth/power on 9.2, and dial it back on 9.1 after the news for their "Last Laugh" programming?

Just a theory. Either that, or your neighbors go to bed after the news and turn on their electric blankets, space heaters, white noise machines, and/or personal massage devices, causing interference issues at your house.

Re: KWKB

There's a new "KWKB-P2" subchannel on 20-2, currently broadcasting bars and tone. Wonder what it'll be ...

What was up with KWWL last night (Thu, 2/3)? My OTA recordings of KCRG and KFXA programs were just fine, but the OTA KWWL recordings are just barely watchable.

Showing infomercials now, with no sound...

I've seen a lot of infomercials, but this afternoon I saw Beverly Hillbillies..... Sound nomal.

I've heard 20.2 is supposed to carry AntennaTV.

http://www.antennatv.tv/affiliates/

That would seem to confirm antennatv status.

IOWA
Cedar Rapids KWKB
20.2 - Launch TBA Cedar Rapids - Launch TBA TBA

Davenport/Rock Island
WQAD 8.2- Coming in mid March

Des Moines
WHO 13.3

I saw that too. However, I did not see Beverly Hillbillies in their lineup yesterday so I am not sure that that is what we're seeing.

With the encoders I am familiar with, the dynamic allocation of bandwidth, called statistical multiplexing or "stat-muxing", is not messed with once set up. Priorities are set up (the HD stream being the highest) and sometimes minimum and maximum bitrates are set, then the encoder manages it. If the .1 service needs more bits, it takes bandwidth from the others, and gives it back when it can.

Couldn't tell you about personal-massager interference...I have no experience in such things.

As far as I've been able to determine, I do not think that KCRG uses statistical multiplexing. Can't say for sure, but that's the impression I've gotten.

- Trip

KWKB used to run the black-and-white public domain episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies late at night, so maybe they're using that for testing.

Does anybody know why KWKB-DT is still 4:3 (544x480i) on Mediacom? It was briefly HD last year.

Also I'm wondering if KWKB is the same way over the air?

Unfortunately, KWKB (channel 820) is still in SD for me on Mediacom, even though the channel is transmitted in HD (although it is too far away for my OTA antenna).
It was for sure in HD on Mediacom from the fall of 2009 through to May of 2010, but then once shows started up again in Sep 2010 it was back in SD. Over on the DSLReports site, MediacomChad says he contacted my local TOS and was told it should be in HD. I only watch one show on that network and so I just haven't bothered using a vacation day to go down to the main office and have them prove to me channel 820 is 1080i, despite the fact my two TVs show all programming to be 480i now.

The last time I checked, the Cedar Rapids QAM version of KWKB, when it was actually broadcasting something (which only seems to happen about 80% of the time) was in 480i, and mono audio that was jacked up about 20-25 dB over every other channel. I can try checking it again tonight and see what it's doing or not doing.

If someone can verify that KWKB is not actually broadcasting in 1080i, that would at least mean there is not some bizarre problem only affecting the Mediacom cable feed into my house. Just to prove that I wasn't dreaming, though, that they at least used to broadcast in 1080i, one can see the TSReader output from 10/01/2009 over on the RabbitEars.info site.

I pulled up 20.1 over the air, and my TV shows 1080i, 16x9.

Pulling it up via QAM (119.4 in CR), my TV says 480i, 4x3.

Since my initial assessment was during syndicated programming, I also confirmed that the Primetime programming was this way. OTA primetime on KWKB was 16 x 9, 1080i, and QAM was 4 x 3, 480i.