Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV - Page 253

that would be am accurate assumption.

Looks like WRC-4 and WTTG-5 are incurring a significant reduction in coverage.

I find it interesting that the maps show no coverage from the Balt. stations out to my area in western Prince William County in VA either now or after the transition. I've been receiving pretty much every Balt. station since I put up a roof mounted antenna 7 years ago.

RCN in D.C. has launched MLB Network in HD on channel 695 and SD on 391.

I understand that MLB Network is part of the digital package and not part of the sports package, so it doesn't cost extra.

But any word on if they will be in HD on Comcast? I see only SD so far and it is in the SD range of channels, not the HD in Howard County.

Hi, folks. Yesterday, I received delivery of a top-rated 1080p HDTV, a 40-inch Samsung, with 120 Hz refresh rate, that I had bought online due to reading very good reviews about this HDTV. I set up the digital, customizable captions on it using yellow text on a black background.

Unfortunately, I discovered a severe problem with WJLA's digital captions on channel 7.1.

Specifically, what I saw happen was the digital captions building up on the screen over time for two different pre-recorded prime-time programs and eventually cluttering up the entire screen. Old captions were staying at the top of the screen and moving up, while new ones were showing up on the bottom. I haven't seen this kind of captioning problem before with any other digital TV equipment.

WJLA's digital captions are also problematic for my 2006 Sharp HDTV, which can't decode them at all. Thus neither of my HDTVs are able to decode digital captions from WJLA even though they can decode digital captions from other stations. This tells me there is something unusual about how WJLA is transmitting its digital (CEA-708) captions for non-live, prime time programming on their digital channel.

(On the other hand, my Insignia converter box and my Panasonic DVD writer are both able to decode WJLA's digital captions, so there is a difference in how TV equipment from different manufacturers are processing the digital captions.)

I am really, really disappointed. I had certainly hoped that a brand new HDTV from Samsung, particularly a top-rated one reviewed by Consumer Reports, would not have any problem at all decoding captions. I think there's an interactive effect between what WJLA is doing, though, and how certain manufacturers are decoding captions. If the TV stations use signal processors and captioning equipment correctly, they should be eliminating such problems, though there may also be a problem with their captioning equipment being faulty. (WJLA uses an Evertz caption encoder.)

If any of you have a digital TV, could you let me know your own experience getting digital captions (the customizable kind) for the local ABC station, WJLA, on their digital channel, especially with non-live prime time programming? (If you change the color of the foreground, or the text, to yellow, and can then see yellow captions, then you'll know you've set up the digital captions correctly. Many people, however, have found it difficult to set up the customizable captions and don't realize they didn't do so correctly, particularly if they didn't change the text color. Default captions will still be black and white.)

Unfortunately, WJLA has not given me the courtesy of responding to my emails to them reporting recent captioning problems, so I do plan to file a complaint with the FCC if I don't get a response from WJLA by next Monday. I think it would be helpful to find out what other digital TV equipment has problems decoding digital captions from WJLA, so I'm asking for your help by letting me know if you have any problems seeing the digital Service1 or CS1 captions, not the analog, CC1 captions, on the digital channel from WJLA, especially for the pre-recorded prime time programs. (I'm not seeing a problem with live captioning, which uses a different captioning process, or with the Samsung's basic CEA-608 captioning.)

Let me know the brand and model number of the HDTV you're using as well as the date of manufacture or the date you bought it.

If you have an HDTV that you are using with an antenna but you're not sure how to program it to decode the digital, CS1 or Service1 captions even after following all the instructions in your HDTV's user manual (please do this first), feel free to email me privately at dmulvany@usa.net.

If this problem isn't fixed in time, I won't be able to watch any WJLA programs, like "Lost," with digital captions from this $1200 Samsung 40" HDTV after February 17th, and that will probably be true for other people in this area who have Samsung HDTVs and possibly HDTVs from certain other manufacturers as well. (I may have to end up returning the HDTV and eating the $57 shipping cost because there was no way I could know ahead of time about the Samsung's inability to decode the problematic digital captions from WJLA.)

If we can find out that there are even more DTV manufacturers involved than Samsung and Sharp which can't decode digital captions from WJLA, that might impress upon WJLA, Evertz and the FCC that they need to take more action to troubleshoot this problem.

Dana

With GMA on this morning, I have checked on two TV's, one off-air (Westinghouse [don't laugh]) and one with Fios (Sony), and I do not see any issues with setting preferences with colors and CC. Right now, I am looking at lime green letters on a purple background with a 50% transparency. No problems with either monitor.

I have also analyzed the bit stream and our captions are within the specs.

I will check at noon during the news to check the local side.

I just checked the 8:25 and the 8:55 transition from network to local news and back to network. There were no issues with either of my TV's with custom captions.

I will check at noon, but things look good on my end.

Dana,

So far this morning, I haven't seen any captioning problems on WJLA-DT. I'm using a 52" Sony Bravia, model #KDL-52V4100. I will check again during Prime Time and let you know if I notice anything then. I will also check my other television (26" Vizio) with a built-in ATSC tuner and my two CECB set-top boxes (Insignia & Magnavox) as well. You can chat with me directly on yahoo (screenname: steve_in_shadyside) if you notice it happening at a certain time and would like me to check any/all of my equipment.

Steve

I believe that samsung has released a firmware updates for the lcd TVs, might be worth searching for it to see if it would fix your problem.

Dana,
Sorry to learn of your problem, but I am glad to note that Robert has responded.
I tested my HP SL4282N HDTV, and find nothing unusual on the captions for Channel 7.1 at 10:15 AM. I did note that most of the commercials did not provide captions. My tv was purchased in September of 2008.

I have long observed odd behavior for the captions on WJLA-DT. The Sony DHG-HDD250 HD-DVR (which I use for OTA only) does not display any captions for WJLA-DT in the custom mode. I have had to switch to the embedded old caption data with white text & blocked out background to see CC for WJLA-DT ABC network programs. The Samsung SIR-T451 ATSC tuner will show the captions, but they don't get cleared properly. The captions stay there and move up the screen in a manner similar to what dmulvany describes.

My guess is that there is a bad parameter setting in the EIA-708 caption field. Perhaps a latency or how long to display the captions parameter. The firmware in the tuners act differently for invalid or unexpected values. When I first started watching digital broadcasts OTA, for one local station, I was seeing generally no captions, but sometime the captions would sometimes flash on the screens for a very short time. After I contacted the station, turns out the CC settings were set to display the captions for either zero time or some very short period, so the tuner would start to load the captions and then wipe them from the display. You should take a look at all the CC parameter settings.

Robert, thanks for checking, but you were only looking at live captioning, which isn't the problem. GMA is live. The problem I've been seeing is with digital captions from pre-recorded prime time programming, like "Lost" and "Ugly Betty," which I've never been able to see intact on my Sharp HDTV from WJLA-DT (though it decodes digital captions from other stations). Somehow, pre-recorded captioning is being transmitted differently from WJLA than the live captioning is.

afigatt confirms he's seen exactly the same problem with his Samsung equipment on WJLA-DT, and he's also seen no digital captions from WJLA on his Sony equipment (similar to the problem I have on my Sharp HDTV). So now there are three known and different brands of DTV equipment that can't decode the pre-recorded digital captions from WJLA: Samsung, Sharp and Sony, although they can decode captions from other stations. Again, please note that live captioning from news and sports games is fine, so it's important to check out the digital captions from non-live, pre-recorded, prime time programming. (Upconverted captions from syndicated programs may be treated differently from the pre-recorded prime time programs.)

Tonight, for example, "America's Funnies," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" would be examples of prime-time, pre-recorded programming that are beamed by ABDC's satellite that I've never been able to watch on WJLA-DT with my Sharp HDTV. The football game is live and would use live captioning. My Sharp and Samsung HDTVs can get live digital captions fine from WJLA, so that's not the problem; it's only the pre-recorded captions that are being sent out incorrectly via either ABC or WJLA.

BTW, my Sharp HDTV cannot be forced to show only the analog-type captions on digital channels, although the Samsung can. (Conversely, the Samsung won't automatically display analog-style captions if no CEA-708 captions are being sent.) Thus I've never been able to see intact captions on WJLA-DT on my Sharp HDTV. The TV manufacturers are different in how they handle decoding CEA-608 or CEA-708 captions, and a spokesperson from the National Association of Broadcasters has stated that HDTVs are not required to decode CEA-608 captions. Both types of captions need to be sent out intact so that all HDTVs will be able to decode either CEA-608 or CEA-708 captions on the digital channel.

Dana

Thanks very much, Steve! Since afigatt reported that he has seen digital captioning problems from WJLA-DT on his Sony DHG-HDD250 HD-DVR, it may be more likely for you to see a problem with digital captions from WJLA-DT on non-live, pre-recorded programs tonight with your own Sony (like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice."). In his case, the digital CEA-708 captions (aka Service1, CS1 or advanced closed captions) don't show up at all, similar to the problem I experience with my Sharp HDTV.

It'll also be interesting to hear how your Vizio HDTV does. I have an Insignia converter box but not a Magnavox converter box, so it would be interesting to see if your Magnavox can decode the digital captioning consistently.

My Insignia box, made by LG, often has been able to show the digital captions from WJLA-DT but sometimes there have been problems and I've had to use the analog captions instead.

I think it would be helpful to watch the digital captions for at least ten minutes or so. Sometimes the digital captions will be fine at first but then every other phrase will be dropped and then all the captioning drops out altogether.

I'll add your Yahoo screen name; mine is dmulvany. I have a lot of other IM addresses and I'm also on Facebook (use dmulvany@usa.net to find me) so if anyone else here would like to connect with me via chat or email or Facebook, please feel free to contact me---just let me know you're following up on the WJLA-DT digital captioning problems.

Again, thanks very much! It's been quite frustrating never being able to watch "Ugly Betty" or "Lost" in high definition on my Sharp HDTV---for more than the two years I've had the TV. I really appreciate everyone's help trying to figure out what's going on.

Dana

My 52" Sony Bravia shows no captioning at all on 7.1 during Grey's Anatomy. However, I do see captions on 2.1 and 7.0 (analog).

In addition, both CECBs that I own, an Insignia and a Magnavox, show captions just fine on 7.1 right now. All 3 of these tuners are receiving the signals over-the-air.

It seems that a cheap converter box does a better job than a $2500 tv. This really doesn't surprise me. This tv has other issues too. It doesn't handle HDMI from computers very well and the TVGOS system is totally worthless when receiving signals over-the-air. It does have an awesome HD picture though. Nothing is perfect. I'm just glad that I didn't own a 30 GB Zune.

Thanks,

Steve

I can't believe the FCC has allowed WMDO-8 to ignore this problem for so long. Could it be that so few people can actually receive them?

It's ashamed that this has caused lizh so much trouble!!

The station management doesn't seem to be too concerned.

I can see that there's a digital signal on 8, but it's too weak to decode where I live.

I continued not to be able to see any captions at all on my Sharp HDTV for all three of the pre-recorded prime time programs on WJLA-DT---even though I could see captions for some of the commercials.

On this thread alone, we have seen that there are at least three different brands of DTV equipment that all have trouble decoding WJLA-DT's digital captions although they can decode digital captions from other channels: Samsung, Sony and Sharp. There may be others as well. (LG, Magnavox and Panasonic DTV equipment might not have these problems, however.)

I think there's clearly something that WJLA needs to change about the way it's sending out the digital captions for pre-recorded, prime-time programs so it's not causing problems for the DTV equipment from the first three and possibly other manufacturers. The DTV equipment can decode digital captions just fine from other stations, so there's something abnormal about how WJLA is sending out its digital captions that might be very easy to fix and which could eliminate the current captioning problems for the thousands of owners who have DTV equipment from these manufacturers.

Dana

I think the FCC generally relies on people to file complaints before it will act. Someone would actually need to file a written complaint with the station and then with the FCC if there isn't a satisfactory response. Quite possibly nobody has ever filed a complaint with the FCC. Their web site is at www.fcc.gov.

FWIW, the 40" Samsung I just got doesn't allow me to manually add channels either. It's not letting me see some channels (54.1 and the subchannels of 66) that I can get elsewhere within my house. Ironically, I might have to hook up a cheap converter box in order to see those programs on my expensive HDTV (if I decide to keep it).

Dana

Their PSIP is malfunctioning. Evidently it causes serious issues with some tuners. I will hook my Channel Master CECB back up & try it. I believe it had issues also. The Zenith units just exhibit a rapidly changing virtual channel number (1-47-1-47-1 . . . .) which prevents the channel from locking in the favorites memory. Manual channel entry is the only option.

Some FCC broadcast ma;s of our area (analog vs digital).

http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_...hington_DC.pdf

http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_...hington_DC.pdf

Has anyone else noticed a slight voice-sync issue with WBFF over E*? I receive WBFF both OTA and with E* and have noticed a very slight sync issue. I seems like the audio is off by about .5 seconds to me.

WWPX again, didn't have the 700 Club on 60.1 this morning. I had to watch it on 60. They had another infomercial running during the time slot. About 10-15 min into the 700 Club, I did notice that there was a quick switchover to the Infomercial (then back), on 60.

Does WWPX do any HD? The 700 Club is in HD here in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk market...

Wasn't Weather Plus supposed to have ended at New Years? I haven't checked, and I don't have OTA here at work? What happened to NBC4 and 11's sub-channels?

It still on Comcast cable. Also over the air it is on WRC and WBAL, except it does not appear to be national just local weather.

Cuurently WWPX iON; 60-1 Infomercial is 480i, 60-2 Lambchops is 480i, 60-3 Girls Gone Fishing is 480i, and 60-4 Worship is 480i.

WWPX-DT 60 (12) and WPXW-DT 66 (43, post 34) are Ion network stations and currently SD sub-channels only. Ion is supposed to go 720p HD sometime in the 1st quarter of 09. Whether they will show 700 Club in HD and what Ion will do with the informercials that fill up much of their daily programming is anybody's guess.

We do get THE 700 CLUB in HD on WBFF 45.1 from Baltimore.