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Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV - Page 444

post #13291 of 13479
11/28/12 at 9:25am
It's fixed! Picture is good again. Just got an email back from WUSA9 Community Relations VP and the Engoneering Dept. It appears the problem was a Comcast one. The two concerns communicated with each other and the problem seems to have come clear while testing. I used to work in the communications industry and " came clear while testing" was a favorite way to clear out a trouble report. No blame here!wink.gif
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post #13292 of 13479
11/28/12 at 11:27pm
From this FCC paperwork posted on its website within the last two hours, Fox has applied to sell WUTB My 24 to Deerfield Media, which if the FCC does approve it, we will see a Sinclair Triopoly in its flagship city, Baltimore (joining flagship WBFF Fox 45 & Cunningham's WNUV CW 54).
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post #13293 of 13479
11/30/12 at 3:50am
Now it's Gannett vs. DirecTV battling it out in fee negoitating. This is happening in all
cities where Gannett owns a station. WUSA has been running annoying crawls
during every CBS show telling their users to call DirecTv and complain. I put the
blame on greedy Gannett extorting money from cable and satellite operators.

If I lose WUSA, is there any chance I can call DirecTV and ask for an alternate
CBS station like WJZ?

Will NFL Sunday Ticket lift the blackout on games WUSA is showing on
Sunday since they wil not be available?
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post #13294 of 13479
11/30/12 at 9:37am
I don't think DirecTV can just swap stations like that, due to regulations.
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post #13295 of 13479
11/30/12 at 4:28pm
You may be able to "move" to Baltimore by changing your zip code in your system settings set up. Then you would receive WJZ-13. I know people sometimes do this to receive alternate markets. But I remember that cable systems used to carry both DC and Baltimore stations. Not sure how it is now. And you could always add an outside antenna and ask DirecTV to integrate their OTA tuner with your receiver. Then you should get both DC and Baltimore HD channels.
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post #13296 of 13479
12/2/12 at 6:13pm
Anyone have any idea why I'm getting a 100% on my RF signal and 0 for WRC on my SNR Artec T14A USB ATSC Tuner? All other DC stations come in at about 100/100 on my attic combo setup (4228/Y10-2-13). All my TV's seem to have no issues with WRC. Wondering if there is something very specific that could cause a low or non-existent SNR reading when the RF signal is so high...

My TV's will also pickup 45, 54 & 2 out of Baltimore, but the Artec doesn't sniff them. I'm assuming that is because the tuner in the Artec is probably crap compared to the tuners in the TV's...
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post #13297 of 13479
12/2/12 at 6:59pm
Are you using a pre-amp? It's possible that the Artec's first stage cannot handle as strong a signal as your TVs do.
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post #13298 of 13479
12/2/12 at 7:06pm
Yes, I use a preamp up in the attic right by the antenna. I then have a 1x8 DA in the basement to distribute to rooms in the house. Just seems strange that only WRC has this issue, all others run about 100/100 and look beautiful... If I put a couple of splitters in front of the artec, that should knock the signal down enough to see if that does it?
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post #13299 of 13479
12/5/12 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
I just serviced an Alexandria, Virginia customer who thought they were having trouble getting WRC 4.1. The problem was, during an auto-programming scan, their Access HD1080D tuner box had found WACP 4 in Philadelphia, 136 miles away, and assigned it 4.1 and 4.2, so when it then had gotten to UHF 48 WRC, it assigned it numbers 48.3 and 48.4 and this customer didn't think to look for it there. I rescanned, and now WACP is no longer in the channel list.
Edited by AntAltMike - 12/6/12 at 12:11am
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post #13300 of 13479
12/6/12 at 5:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerSC View Post

You may be able to "move" to Baltimore by changing your zip code in your system settings set up. Then you would receive WJZ-13. I know people sometimes do this to receive alternate markets. But I remember that cable systems used to carry both DC and Baltimore stations. Not sure how it is now. And you could always add an outside antenna and ask DirecTV to integrate their OTA tuner with your receiver. Then you should get both DC and Baltimore HD channels.

Does this work? I do not think you can get out of market locals through D*. You can get out of market channels via OTA via antenna in avariety of ways.
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post #13301 of 13479
12/6/12 at 5:41am
Thread Starter 
To clarify what can be done physically or legally with DirecTV equipment, there is a difference between setting up a DirecTV off-air tuner to be able to tune adjacent market channels and changing a receiver's account status to make it part of a different DMA to enable satellite reception of those same out-of-market stations.

When DirecTV first started incorporating off-air tuners in its HDTV receivers, like the Hughes H-86 and I think the Sony Sat-100 (it had been a long time... I'm not even sure of those model numbers), it used to be that the off-air auto scan mapped al of the stations it found. Then, when they sent out software upgrades that included their "advanced program guide", the user could enter a primary and secondary area code before autoscanning, and the receiver would include any detected transmitters from either of those DMAs, but if they didn't enter that second zip code, those out of market transmitters would show up in the preliminary, actual transmitter channel frequency table, but not in the channels found list or guide.

But as far as getting an adjacent market by satellite, the spot beam carrying the local stations from the adjacent market is strong enough to be receivable but for legal reasons, DirecTV cannot authorize a receiver known to be at one physical address as part of a DMA of another zip code.

FWIW, Washington, DC standard definition locals are on transponder 18 and Baltimore standard definition locals are on transponder 26, and when you put a receiver in signal test, you can see that transponder 26 is as strong anywhere in the Washington, DC DMA as the so-called CONUS beams are. I do not know the spot beams assigned to the Washington or Baltimore high def channels, but you can find that out on lyngsat.com or elsewhere.

If you ever "move" to a address in the Baltimore DMA, you can speed up the process by informing DirecTV that you have self installed the system there and give them the address at which you want them to send the bill from now on. And since the person who will be taking over the property you will have moved out of will probably want to enjoy local broadcast HDTV immediately, before they decide what premium TV service to subscribe to, you might want to tell them that they can get their Washington DC locals just fine for free off the air. wink.gif
Edited by AntAltMike - 12/6/12 at 11:12am
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post #13302 of 13479
12/6/12 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pclement View Post

Does this work? I do not think you can get out of market locals through D*. You can get out of market channels via OTA via antenna in avariety of ways.
I know of people who have done this changing zip codes technique in NC. But I guess it depends upon location and the available sat beams. And not really sure about the legalities involved. So which is why I prefer the OTA antenna method as you suggested.
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post #13303 of 13479
12/6/12 at 10:36am
Yes, this confirms what I thought. You can "trick" D* receivers for OTA, but not locals through D*. My H-20 receiver allows me to put in a zip code for the dish and a primary and a secondary for OTA. That will map the OTA for those zip codes (even if you can not actually receive the channels via your antenna). You can then scan for channels and view all the OTA you can receive. Channels outside of the zip codes will be viewable, but the receiver will not provide any program guides. What you can do with other D* receivers will vary and most later D* models do not support OTA.
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post #13304 of 13479
12/12/12 at 5:25pm
Is there a consensus on which provides the better HD picture, Fios or Xfinity?
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post #13305 of 13479
12/16/12 at 1:22pm
I'm a Comcast customer in DC. I do a lot of recording, mostly of analog output from the cable box and DTAs. When I'm out of town for more than a few days, I exceed the maximum of seven channel changes on my cable box and need to use the QAM tuner in my Magnavox 535 HDD DVR for additional recordings. I've successfully tested recordings on most of the available channels, but I'm stuck on two. Is there anyone here running the Comcast cable directly into a Magnavox 535 who can tell me where to find WETAHD and WETAUK?

The Magnavox does receive those channels; I can access them via Channel Up from the basic WETA channel (which is at 26.18), but the displayed channel numbers (26.1 and 26.2) do not work for timer recordings. I've checked everything between 26.1 and 26.40, plus a lot of other possbilities, without success. In the process, I did find WMPT22 and its subchannels at 133.1 - 133.3, so there's no telling where WETAHD and WETAUK may be hiding out. Btw, if anyone is looking for MHz1, it's at 22.3 (for the moment, at least).

Does anyone have a clue about WETAHD and--especially--WETAUK?

Many thanks.
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post #13306 of 13479
12/17/12 at 3:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerSC View Post

But fortunately, many VHF stations have been allowed to increase power, including RF7 and RF9 in DC,

 

Not  fortunate for their power bills.... Was not one of the reasons some VHF stations (WUSA, WJAL) opted to stay there at the Great DTV Shuffle rather than move to UHF (al-la WRC) because in theory fewer PEPCO kilowatts would be needed by staying put?

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post #13307 of 13479
12/18/12 at 4:31am
There's certainly a difference in power consumption.. You'd have to look at the transmitter TPO numbers rather than ERP numbers to make a comparison.

One of the biggest benefits was that the stations could re-use their old analog antenna with digital broadcasting.
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post #13308 of 13479
12/19/12 at 4:19am
So, I was watching the Wizards/Hawks game last night on Verizon FiOS Comcast SportsNet. (I know, I know... why would I torture myself that way?) But the game was actually pretty entertaining and the score was very close at the end of regulation. With less than 2 minutes left in the contest, the screen went dark and up popped this "EAS - Emergency Alert System" message. For the next few minutes, the STB was unresponsive. Couldn't change the channel, couldn't fast-forward. When the program returned they were 30 seconds into overtime. Is this normal for Verizon to interrupt a sports event with this stuff? Seems like an odd time to run a test.
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post #13309 of 13479
12/19/12 at 8:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerSC View Post

The full power UHF DTV signals seem to perform very well, and usually equal if not improve upon their previous analog signals in many areas. Unless a station is restricted to side mounted or directional antennas, or limited power levels. But HiVHF signals were apparently underestimated with power levels too low and problems with noise and interference. But fortunately, many VHF stations have been allowed to increase power, including RF7 and RF9 in DC, which reportedly now have very good signals. But apparently RF11 and RF13 in Baltimore are still problematic, as they are limited to low power and directional antennas. But when I lived in Alexandria, VA back in the 90's, I got very good analog reception of both DC and Baltimore with an indoor antenna. Not sure how it is now. And they need to rebuild more Roy Rogers up there like they used to have everywhere.
Did 11 and 13 ever increase their power? I remember one of them had a temporary increase but I didn't see any change. Right now I get 2, 45, and 54. In good conditions, with the antenna pointed in a certain direction, I get 24 which is an improvement. Does anyone know an indoor antenna that works better than a Terk HDTVa or an outdoor antenna that can also work indoors?
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post #13310 of 13479
12/19/12 at 8:04am
Also, there are so many unused public access/local spaces on Verizon FiOS. Why can't they fill those with Baltimore stations
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post #13311 of 13479
12/22/12 at 10:24am
Does anyone know what clear QAM stations we get in DC with Xfinity? I've got one cable box only but am setting up more than one TV. Thanks!
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post #13312 of 13479
12/23/12 at 8:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProjectSHO89 View Post

There's certainly a difference in power consumption.. You'd have to look at the transmitter TPO numbers rather than ERP numbers to make a comparison.
One of the biggest benefits was that the stations could re-use their old analog antenna with digital broadcasting.

 

 

That was the incentive, of course... Same antenna, same feedline, {likely} the same transmitter...just a new exciter.

 

But that damned reality reared its ugly head, and bit back. I wonder how much WUSA, WJLA, and others ended up spending on their power upgrades... and what their ongoing power costs are now.

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post #13313 of 13479
12/24/12 at 6:06am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkfs View Post

Not  fortunate for their power bills.... Was not one of the reasons some VHF stations (WUSA, WJAL) opted to stay there at the Great DTV Shuffle rather than move to UHF (al-la WRC) because in theory fewer PEPCO kilowatts would be needed by staying put?

I think the biggest factor in their decisions to stay on VHF for most stations were the beliefs thast they would have better coverage on their VHF channel,. first, because VHF bends over the terrain better and second, on an individual basis, sometimnes the UHF temporary assignment was geographically crimped due too conflicts with the next nearest stations using the same channel.

Unfortunately, it is now realized that VHF highband isnt as desirable as had been hoped because 1) there is more impulse noise disruption of VHF highband signals, particularly from lightning strikes, and 2) people with indoor antennas are disinclined to use antennas that are optimized in size for VBHF highband reception
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post #13314 of 13479
12/25/12 at 9:51pm
Thread Starter 
Cozi TV is now on WRC 4.2

Here is their Zap2it grid:
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCSGrid.do?fromTimeInMillis=1356930000000&stnNum=45736&channel=4.2&sgt=grid

They checkerboard their programming blocks in prime time, but most often "Strip" program in the daytime.

Don't even bother with their official website. They make you watch a 20+ second commercial before you can see each 30 second series promo

Too many conflicts with MeTV for me:

Alias Smith and Jones opposite Rockford at 11:00 am, M-F
Marcus Welby versus Hawaii 5-0 at noon, M-F

Starting 8:00 PM, blocks :
Monday, Three Mystery Movies (Banacek, McCloud, McMilian)
Tuesday, Charlies Angels
Wednesday, Bionic Man
Thursday, Magnum PI

10PM Friday:The Bold Ones

Sunday Jan 6 at noon: JC Superstar, rebroadcast 2:00 AM Monday.
Edited by AntAltMike - 12/25/12 at 10:10pm
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post #13315 of 13479
12/26/12 at 10:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntAltMike View Post

Cozi TV is now on WRC 4.2
Here is their Zap2it grid:
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCSGrid.do?fromTimeInMillis=1356930000000&stnNum=45736&channel=4.2&sgt=grid
They checkerboard their programming blocks in prime time, but most often "Strip" program in the daytime.
Don't even bother with their official website. They make you watch a 20+ second commercial before you can see each 30 second series promo
Too many conflicts with MeTV for me:
Alias Smith and Jones opposite Rockford at 11:00 am, M-F
Marcus Welby versus Hawaii 5-0 at noon, M-F
Starting 8:00 PM, blocks :
Monday, Three Mystery Movies (Banacek, McCloud, McMilian)
Tuesday, Charlies Angels
Wednesday, Bionic Man
Thursday, Magnum PI
10PM Friday:The Bold Ones
Sunday Jan 6 at noon: JC Superstar, rebroadcast 2:00 AM Monday.

I see some interesting programming there, but when I checked it out yesterday, the program being broadcast didn't match up with the guide, and the picture quality was really muddy and bad. Much worse than the old NBC Nonstop channel.

Edit: The picture quality would appear to be not so much WRC's fault, but a result of really bad source material. Some of these shows appear to be kinescopes or from film that was in really bad shape.
Edited by machpost - 12/27/12 at 5:14am
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post #13316 of 13479
12/26/12 at 7:43pm
Thread Starter 
This week, 4.2 Cozi is showing Lone Ranger movies in prime time. Next week, the zap2it grid says they will show similar movies in that time range, whereas the Cozi TV site says they will begin showing the 1970s/1080s action shows I listed in my above post.
Edited by AntAltMike - 12/27/12 at 10:10am
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post #13317 of 13479
12/30/12 at 2:46pm
I'm having trouble pulling in channel 7 in Ashburn. I can get almost everything else (4,5,9,26 - even some from Baltimore). I'm already using an amp. What else can I do to improve my reception?
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post #13318 of 13479
12/30/12 at 3:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwallen View Post

I'm having trouble pulling in channel 7 in Ashburn. I can get almost everything else (4,5,9,26 - even some from Baltimore). I'm already using an amp. What else can I do to improve my reception?

What are you using for an antenna? it's usually more important than any amp.
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post #13319 of 13479
12/31/12 at 7:54am
Called Comcast to ask if I could get another 3 free months of Streampix, and also asked when the DC area will be getting the X1 interface with cloud based DVR service. After being on hold for several minutes, the CSR said March for X1 and yes for 3 more free months of Streampix. I asked if X1 will only be offered to Triple-Play customers and he said no. Hope he is right, another reason to look forward to Spring!

Happy New Year,

Mike
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post #13320 of 13479
1/3/13 at 4:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntAltMike View Post

Cozi TV is now on WRC 4.2
Here is their Zap2it grid:
 

 

 

I looked and saw nothing I'd want to watch, save maybe an occasional Magnum....

 

I have to wonder how many rerun channels we need....

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