St. Louis, MO - HDTV - Page 112

I suppose it's quite possible an antenna aiming issue. When you consider the "book" on aiming the 118° FSB LNB on the 500+ or 1000+ is simply peaking the dish on to 119°, and the first time technicians did any sort of mass install of these units in STL was when the HD locals went up on 118°, it's certainly a consideration.

OTOH, it is a bit odd, when you consider how many subscribers lost the signal from Tp18 after the move, most did not lose any signal at all.
That, coupled with, I have to think the "Dish Installer" saying there were "thousands of reports" is somewhat embellished, when you consider the entire national subscriber base of Dish (what...13-14m?), reduced by their subscriber base here in St. Louis, and then further reduced by the St Louis subscribers who have a MPEG4 receiver, and subscribe to the HD locals. In my conversations with Dish Engineering, I don't think the issue is quite that widespread.

Personally, I believe it is some sort of transmission issue, on Dish's end, which they will identify and fix, without the need of individual service calls to subscribers.

EDIT: I posted a question about this issue on DBSTalk on the 3rd....no replies, and there are plenty of STL members who read DBS.

kdg454

Thanks for your continuing interest in this matter. I actually lost KTVI and KSDK again later this afternoon and haven't seen them since. I shall be interested in what happens with my friend's installation after his scheduled repair visit. Meanwhile I called in myself and was given a date of May 19 for my visit. Two full weeks! Even the service rep was surprised by how far out the first available slot was.

Goodness...one would sure hope they don't have to re-aim all the dish's...presuming the installers know how....it could still take months...ugh!

When the installer put my 1000+ in, he is the one who explained to me, the "book" method of peaking the dish. He also said he follows that guide, and then peaks that center dual-LNB a second time. Which I watched him do. Essentially, he moved it a bit closer to 118°, than 119°. Dunno if that had any effect, but it's working.

I never lost mine, but the signals did drop after the move.
Prior: Tp11@72; Tp18@68 (KDNL/KMOV)
After: Tp11@68; Tp18@52 (KSDK/KTVI)

Since the move, I am still having abnormal excessive break-ups on KTVI via SAT, that are not on OTA. Enough so, we've moved all the KTVI timers to OTA.

It's definitely a good idea you have to get OTA. Not only for this type of issue, but you also pick-up a 3rd timer on your 622, and the OTA PQ is a tad bit better.

I'll say it again ... the problem is with Windows, not Adobe.

Acrobat 8, and in fact the entire new CS3 Suite, screams on my Macs -- older PPC G5 and my Intel MacBook Pro.

Unix of any flavor > Windoze



edit: forgot smileys

Thanks for the tip, Doug. I didn't bother uninstalling Adobe Reader, just added FoxItReader and told it to be the default reader for pdf files. Amazing speed.

Could it be that it's Adobe's implementation of Reader on Windows, rather than Windows itself? FoxItReader screams on Windows (thanks again, Doug). I haven't opened a single pdf file on my system that takes more than 2 seconds to open; most are almost instantaneous. And I have some long pdf files I've just opened with FoxItReader.

I've recently been using PrimoPDF quite a bit to create pdf files. Once you install it, it appears as one of your printers. So when you print a document to the PrimoPDF "printer," it saves it as a pdf. Pretty handy and extremely easy to use.

I need to amend my previous statement about the speed of FoxItReader. I said I hadn't found any file that took more than 2 seconds to load. Actually, after playing around a little more, I discovered that I couldn't finish a count of "a thousand one" before *any* pdf loaded. This includes files over 150 pages in length. Gotta love it.

Yes you can blame Adobe. But registry entries is a Windows necessity, and the worst thing about that OS.

Anyhow ... back to TV.

I just got a Motorola HD-DVR box from Charter a few days ago, and I was wondering if I needed to go into the service menu to make sure it is outputting in 1080i? I seem to remember that with the regular HD boxes, this was sometimes an issue. If I have to do it, can anyone help me figure out how to get to this menu?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Brian

Yes, it's important to make sure your Moxi is outputting at 1080i. I've had two Moxi's and both times the technician did not bother to set the output. I have 1080i, 720P, 480P and 480i checked. You are supposed to check all formats that your display can handle. If you don't think your HD picture is very good, then it's a good bet your output is not set correctly. On my Moxi I can find the output settings by pushing the Moxi button, then "settings", then "HD settings".

Thanks for the help. I have the Motorola HD-DVR and your tip worked. Everything was set fine, so no problems. Just like to double check. Thanks again.

Brian

I thought the HD production of the Cardinals game was very good today.
I watched it entirely on the Dish SAT feed, and don't recall any audio or video blurbs.

Randolph still rudely interrupting Horton, mid-sentence, is getting quite annoying. It's obvious he cannot keep pace with engineering in one ear, Horton in the other, and call the game. IMO, he's an embarrassment. I think Katie Felts would have been a better choice.

Though, KSKD did a good job. The cuts to Cusumono were smooth and well timed.



OT (oddly enough), I'm thinkin' Jared has 2 daughters by now...last Tuesday was the scheduled day.
Hope all is well!

I expect the repair kit for my parents RP CRT HDTV to arrive tomorrow. In the event that I cannot fix it they have begun looking at new TV's.

They have 3 main requirements:
Cost - Less than $2000 (they just spent $20K on a new retaining wall and landscaping)

Size - Current screen is 53", they don't want to go smaller

Anti-Glare - The position of the TV means it get's a lot of sunshine in the early afternoon. The current Hitachi RP CRT is almost a mirror at times.

They are perfectly happy with 720P/1080i and do not need 1080P.

I've been looking at some of the new DLP models(unfortunately the Samsung LED model is a little high)

Mom went to Best Buy and they tried to sell her an LCD.
Any recommendations?

Thanks
Dave

Haha...this, and few similar problems, is why/how I found out about this board....to fix all the crap that Charter couldn't/wouldn't! Year and half later, I have D*.

FYI - on my Direct HR20 experiences.

Install went smooth. No problem. They left both dishes in place per "policy" - guess I'll get up on the roof in a week or two and pull down the 3 LNB.

I'll start with the bad, because there isn't much. Really the only "bad" I have found is the 'trickplay' of FF/RW/JUMP etc is not quite as "smooth" during live video as it was on the HDTivo. Also, channel changing is a bit slow.. not too bad, but a little slow.

With that said, the picture is geat. Significant improvement in shadow detail, clarity, consistency, etc over the HDTivo. Also no banding which was getting progressively worse on my Tivo. The MPEG-4 locals are pretty dang good. Good enough that the season passes are setup on these versus OTA to save the HD space.

Spent an hour educating my wife and myself on the menu setups, the shortcuts, the guide, etc. Did a couple quick 'hidden' settings from dbstalk to change the guide and scrolling behavior. The end result - we both like it better than the HDTivo. Its faster, easier to navigate, and quicker to get down to business. After a weekend of use, going back to the bedroom Tivo you start to feel like the Tivo's cutesy-ness gets in the way. It feels like 'fluff'.

Anyhow - we are happy with the HR20. We'll see if we start having any of the record problems others talk about, but as of now I would rate it very high.

Chris

Isn't Diego owned by that same Microsoft dude who owns Charter? Do I have someone mixed up? I wanna say Paul Allen, but I'm not sure I'm thinking along the correct lines here

Yes - it is the same Paul Allen.

Its become clear over the years that he must not have been the brains, or the business sense behind Microsoft. He's run more companies, basketball teams, and other ventures into the ground than anyone with $10 billion should be allowed - but I guess if you have $10 billion you have that luxury...
Those of use with 1 or 2 billion just can't throw it away like he does...

Chris

Maybe he believes there is some hope for him...

Something tells me this foundation will suffer from poor customer service, an irrational pricing structure, and ultimately will trail its competition due to charging more for a lesser service.

I dunno why I think this... just a hunch...

Chris

Yes, and what a nice surprise to find that in my dish line-up Friday night. But why do this new channel, and many other HD Channels, appear in two places? Is this temporary while Dish consolodates the HD to appear next to the SD version? Or is it a permanent nuisance?