Mexican HDTV - Page 19

I agree, the Santos-Pumas game really looks terrible. Other than recent Mexico National team friendlies, Azteca hasn't shown any games in HD for a long time. Maybe some of their HD equipment is in South Africa.

Yeah Azteca shown the last Mexico Vs Italy game in HD in their Ch. 20.1

Well at least it seems they will broadcast all the upcoming World Cup games in HD.. while Televisa, at least here in Juarez only has one HD channel Vs. the 2 Azteca's

Is gonna be a real image quality contest, at least this friday 3 networks will broadcast the same game in HD, we'll see who's the big winner there. I think it will come to the least compressed image will take the win, Televisa uses a lot so I think they'll lose.

The game was shown in HD here in Tijuana as well. The picture quality on Azteca 7 HD (channel 29-1 here in TJ) was great! Have to agree with you, Televisa HD is not as good.

Well Univision is going all-out and broadcasting the 64 games in HD.. only 10 will be in Telefutura, those are the ones that we will likely see in SD because our local Telefutura channel isn't HD yet. but maybe those 10 games will be on either Televisa or TvAzteca.

SKY Mexico is claiming he has a dozen "exclusive" games though...

I think the correct number is 8. Telefutura will have the last games of the group stage (when all 4 teams of each group are playing at the same time). One game will be on Telefutura while the other will be on Univision.

Yeah, that´s correct. Too bad that Univisión and Telefutura are broadcasting on the same frequency in San Diego and also are on a low power transmitter, i can´t get those channels.

Televisa and Tv Azteca will broadcast almost 24 games of the group series (first phase), some on XEW 2 and XHDF 13 and others on XHGC 5 and XHIMT 7. I hope those games are broadcasted in HD. Too bad that XHBJ-DT 45-1 isn´t on the air yet.

Greetings from Tijuana.

Televisa and TV Azteca will surely be broadcasting in HD. Although, at least personally, the TV Azteca HD broadcast of the Mexico-Italy game looked better than Televisa. So probably I will be watching the world cup on TV Azteca.

Anyhow, greetings from Playas de Tijuana!

Paco, do you receive XHUAA-DT in Playas?, last thursday i couldn´t check the game because of bad reception (besides that i live some kilometers on south-southeast of Mt. San Antonio), that was an issue that i have several months ago (since 2007 if i´m not mistaken). But i noticed a change on that afternoon and last friday morning (just before i was heading to work) and checked the strengh signal and the bars showed a full signal strengh, and had a stable signal, without corrected errors or pixelation and a blank screen because of weak reception. I also notice that last friday in the early morning hours both channels XHUAA-DT and XEWT-DT were off the air, maybe Televisa engineers were doing something to improve their signal strengh.

So, how is your reception of XHUAA-DT and XEWT-DT right now in your community in Playas de Tijuana?

I certainly hope to watch the world cup games in HD, were at less than 48 hrs for the South Africa vs Mexico opening game.

Greetings.

I rescanned for channels last week and for the first time ever was able to get XHUAA-DT and XEWT-DT! However, as of this last Monday, the channels are gone.

I went to a friend's house in La Mesa (Tijuana not SD) last night and both channels were coming in just fine there. Are you getting XHUAA-DT and XEWT-DT right now where you live? Do you think they may still be tweaking their signals so they can also cover Playas?

Right now i can´t check that because i´m not home. I´m in my workplace. I will tell you latter this Friday when i´m on my week off but, i can guarantee that i can still get very well XETV-DT and XEWT-DT and the other Tijuana DT stations. The only DT channel that i had issues because of weak signal strengh (as i told you before) is with XHUAA 57-1. Let me check that this weekend and i will post it here.

I´m also going to call Televisa and ask an engineer if they made changes on their broadcast equipment (transmitters) to know if they did something that make an improvement with the reception of XHUAA-DT, and also to ask if XHBJ has plans in the near future to sign in it´s digital outlet.

Well, guess I beat you to it! I called XEWT Canal 12 and was able to talk to an engineer. He explained to me that they have installed new antennas which will provide a stronger signal. They are currently testing them. The testing will continue throughout the end of this week. When testing is complete, he guaranteed me that I will be able to receive 57-1, 12-1, and 6-1 here in Playas!

Ah! finally, at long last...

So, they finally are starting to use the new DT antenna installation. Those new antennas were mounted at the top of the VHF tower since last year, (March-May 2009. They´ve remove the 20+ year old analog ch. 6 antenna array) and that new array have elements on their four faces (including west towards Playas), because the current array have most elements on the north (16) and east (14) faces, the south has only 2 elements, while on the west has none and they´ve broadcasting their three combined DT signals since 2006.

So, there will be improvements in the upcoming days. I will ask Televisa engineers if they will still be using the current DT antenna arrays located at the top of the UHF tower, if that´s going to happen, i will have hope that the new DT oulet for XHBJ 45 (on ch. 44) will be on the air sometime soon.

It´s good the hear the news, thanks Paco.

Just to clarify, the engineer also told me that during this testing phase the new DT antenna would mostly be "off-line." They would turn it "on" in the evenings, perform more testing, and then turn it back "off." That explains why I no longer receive these channels.

Let us know how your conversation went with the Televisa engineer, thanks!

Here is an update: This afternoon XHUAA-DT reappeared here in Playas with a strong signal (90%-93% on my TV's signal meter!). I just checked again and it is gone. This is to be expected, signals will come and go until testing is finished.

Wow, now that´s an improvement. You should be happy that you will get these channels once the testing phase is complete and are broadcasting permanently.

And how´s your reception and signal strengh of the other Tijuana DT´s? I heard from someone else that Tv Azteca digitals are weak in that area and/or suffering co-channel interference with L.A.

For 28-1, it is at 92% signal strength. For 29-1, it's at 100%! I used to have a much weaker signal especially for 29-1. But now both are strong. So they must have made some changes to their signal, or there may be less interference with LA.

As far as 6-1, I used to get it, with a weak signal though. Then I had to relocate my outdoor antenna, and lost the channel and never have gotten it back.

Here in Tijuana, Mexico-South Africa was in HD on Televisa (channels 12-1 and 57-1) and Azteca 7 HD (29-1)! To me, the PQ was about the same on both networks. The sound on the Televisa broadcast was terrible though, it sounded like they were broadcasting from a cave.

I'm back home.

I couln't watch the RSA vs México game in HD but it's a good thing that the games are broadcasted in that format.

Paco, guess what? Right now i can't get XHUAA-DT at all. No audio and video. (must be very weak) XEWT and XETV DT's are fine.

It's a good thing that you can receive both Tv Azteca DT's. So, you have options to watch world cup games in HD.

By the way, when you get XHUAA-DT you get only 57-1? is XHUAA 57-2 gone already?

Yes, I only get 57-1. Have never seen 57-2, didn't even know there was a 57-2.

This morning when I got up to watch the game, I was receiving both 12-1 and 57-1 with strong signals (90%+ signal strength!). Don't know if I'm still receiving them, since I am at work right now. Will check tonight.

One thing I am noticing is that the call letters of these two channels are now gone. That is, instead of the TV displaying "XEWT-DT" and "XHUAA-DT" (like it did before), it now just displays "HD". Any ideas what this could mean (if anything)?

Yeah, only one thing: I´m afraid that both transmitters are having PSIP problems and can´t display it´s call letters and virtual channels.

I´ve checked on my HDTV tuner box and directly mark ch. 22 from my control and, when the signal was locked, it change it´s virtual channel from 57-1 to 22-1 and it doesn´t display it´s call letters. The same happened to XEWT-DT, my HDTV box displays virtual ch. 32-1 and no call letters.

Then, i checked my bedroom HDTV set to ch 57-1 and it didn´t display any signal. So, i decided to re-scan (i can´t mark the physical ch. as i can do on my HDTV tuner box) and now i can get this channel. This set also marks vitrual channel 22-1 for XHUAA-DT without it´s call letters, but for XEWT-DT it marks virtual channel 12-1 and it has the letters HD for it´s call signal.

Definetly there´s something wrong with their PSIP on their transmitters. A PSIP is some device that marks information about virtual channels and call letters to be displayed in every digital or HDTV tuner set for everyone who get it´s signals. This is the reason for marking of the virtual channels to be displayed like it´s broadcasting in their analog channel.

I don´t know why Tv Azteca displays their physical channels as their virtual ones. I remember back in 2006 that both channels had it´s analog virtual channels 21-1 for ch. 29, and 27-1 for ch. 28.

Channel 57-2 was a subchannel of XHUAA (displaying XHUAA-2), broadcasting the same programming of it´s main ch. but, in it´s analog signal, it was being broadcasted since several weeks before it turned off.

Thanks for the explanation. I just got home, and now I am receiving 57-2 and 12-2. They seem to be the standard def versions of XHUAA and XEWT, right?

And an update on the call letters: it now displays "XHUAA" for 57-1 and "XEWT" for 12-1 instead of "HD". Both channels have not gone away here in Playas since this morning! Do you think they may be done with the testing?

Right now XHUAA-DT and XEWT-DT are broadcasting 1 sub channel each.

It broadcasts XEQ-9 Galavisión on 22-2 in standard definition (480i) and the regular or local programming of XEWT on 32-2, also in 480i definition.

I had to re-scan again my HDTV set and, mark again the physical channels on my HDTV tuner box.

So 57-2 is XEQ-9 Galavisión and not XHUAA (480i)?

I'm a bit confused, why are the channel numbers different? For example, on my TV, XHUAA-DT is 57-1; but on other TV's it is 22-1. The same is true for XEWT-DT, on my TV it is 12-1; but on others it is 32-1 or 32-2. Why the difference?

And one other update, I am now receiving XETV-DT (6-1) as well!

I thought that they were going to broadcast XEQ-9 Galavisión for a long time (permanently) on 22-2 (57-2) but when the Argentina vs Nigeria game ended, they switched to the regular XEW-2 programming. When the England vs U.S.A. game started, they switch again to Galavisión and when ended they switch back to XEW-2.

What´s the point, or use, to broadcast the same programming, or channel on a subchannel? Yeah, one is in HD 1080i and the other in regular 480i, but both are with the same programming anyway. It´s a waste of space and broadband sacrifice of the main ch. If it were for a different channel or programming, ok, it´s worth it. Don´t you think.

TV Azteca sent just about every babe they have to South Africa. It looks more like a beauty pageant than a sporting event. I'm not complaining.