[mtrot]

Talked to the manager today, and she said they had made the decision to go forward with HD here. She said it will be phased in starting with certain areas. Some will get it sooner, but she says it should be widely available within a year.


Does this sound reasonable? How long did it take in Lubbock for Cox to get it going? She mentioned there is a boondoggle about them showing the local channels in HD. I was thinking of getting a dish, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[manpig]

Why do you think Lubbock Cox has HD? They don't.

 

[mtrot]

I thought I had seen it on this board at the time. I see now there is a thread on Lubbock, and that they are giving the run around on it.


BTW, I talked yesterday to the Cox man here that is in charge of the HD project in Tyler. It looks like it is going to be at least a year away. He says they are going to first do a rebuild of the system here starting in January. He says they only have 4.7 mb(or whatever the unit of measure is) and they are going to bring that up to 10.


He also is in touch with the local station engineers here, and it doesn't look like the locals are in any hurry at all to get going with OTA HD. Dang!


I guess if I want HD any time soon, I'll have to go with some kind of dish. I hate that, since I like the speed of my cable modem and can't realistically get rid of the cable totally.

 

[hankh]

He also is in touch with the local station engineers here, and it doesn't look like the locals are in any hurry at all to get going with OTA HD. Dang!


You are right ! The locals are not taking this seriously, to their harm. With

a high gain outdoor antenna with pre amp, you can receive KTBS-DT (28)

here. If on the west side, I think the Dallas channels would be receivable

with a high gain antenna.

 

[fire407]

Sorry to hear things are so bleak there in Tyler. I worked at KLTV from 1973 to 1978, back when it was the only station in town. Here in LA all of the major stations are broadcasting HD now, except for Fox which is still widescreen 480p, and even Fox is going to go 720p in the next few months. I just bought my father-in-law in Houston a new HDTV for Christmas, and at least he will be able to get a lot of channels. I guess right now it pays to live in a big city. So Best Buy in Tyler sells HDTVs, but do they tell the customers that they really can't get HDTV? Mtrot, if you have a cable modem it would seem that Cox is also offering digital cable. If that's the case then I would think that they could at least offer HBO and Showtime in HD right now, although they may think that HD takes up too much bandwidth.

 

[mtrot]

Fire,


I actually have had the cable modem for about 3 or 4 years now. Fox says they have to and are doing a rebuild of their system(see my above post) before they can offer HD.


As far as HD goes, most people here with enough disposable money to buy an HDTV just get a dish if they want HD programming. Personally, I mainly got the Mits for anamorphic, prog. scan DVDs. I got tired of wasting my Panny RP91 on a mediocre 4:3 Samsung RPTV.

 

[hankh]

Quote:

Originally posted by fire407 Sorry to hear things are so bleak there in Tyler. I worked at KLTV from 1973 to 1978, back when it was the only station in town. Here in LA all of the major stations are broadcasting HD now, except for Fox which is still widescreen 480p, and even Fox is going to go 720p in the next few months. I just bought my father-in-law in Houston a new HDTV for Christmas, and at least he will be able to get a lot of channels. I guess right now it pays to live in a big city. So Best Buy in Tyler sells HDTVs, but do they tell the customers that they really can't get HDTV? .

Yes, I remember when KLTV presented, "The best of all three." It was the

only game in town. It has had at least two different owners since Buford,

however, and their request for DTV channel 10 is held up by a challenge

from a LPTV station in Longview.


Most Best Buy employees have not a clue of what HDTV is. From the way

I have had some explain it to me, it sounds as if they think if the set has

a big screen, it must be HD. That was two years ago when I bought my

HD ready set from Circuit City. I hope the education level has improved

since then.


I sent a message to the manager of KLTV, last week, telling him how much

I enjoyed watching Monday Night Football in high definition, but I

apologized that I watched it on KTBS and not KLTV. I asked him to accept

the message as an encouragement to move forward with his HD plans

because he would find a receptive audience.(Daytime excluded in this

household!!!)


In a way this reminds me of the early days when there was only one

station in town. After a while, a small cable company got started with

snowy OTA signals from Dallas. Then clean signals on microwave together

with that silly time and temperature panoramic containing the inevitable

sign telling you to tune KLTV for the programme airing here.


In a few years, the locals will get on the stick and all will be well.


Kindest Regards.

 

[fire407]

As Ralph Johnson used to say many many years ago--"KLTV, where the viewing's fine and it's always free."

 

[mtrot]

Hank,


That's the first I have heard about another station tying up KLTV's application to change their DT from channel 38 to 10. I noticed that they originally filed the request to change channels over 2 years ago. Maybe this explains why it is taking so long.

 

[hankh]

This is what the station manager told me in response to my email.

 

[pillguy]

mtrot,


Do you know how far the regular cable network spans? My parents live in Eustace, and they need high speed internet BADLY.


Thanks

 

[mtrot]

I don't know about Eustace, but Athens is covered by Cox and I believe they have cable modems in Athens. Eustace is about 15 miles northeast of Athens. You might just call Cox and ask them.

 

[hankh]

Mtrot,


KCEB 54 is filing for channel 38. Since they appear to be run by the same

people that run 56 and 51, I do not expect them to be a blow torch when

they come on line with their DTV signal.


With 54 carrying UPN programming, we now have 3 OTA UPN outlets: 54,

48, and 58 (Longview). Wow a channel for each eye; for one of those

outer space creatures so prominately displayed on UPN....or maybe a

professional wrestler, or two!


On another note, channel 19 KLSB, which is now an NBC outlet in Lufkin,

is moving to Tyler as our new CBS channel. I am told that they hope to be

on the air by the time of the Super Bowl. Currently they are assigned DTV

channel 18 and have a construction permit to build their site near New

Summerfield. I was also told, this past weekend, that they have bought the

old Lazer Tag place by the KFC (Loop and Troup Hwy) to use as their studio.

 

[mtrot]

Hmm. Is this new CBS channel intending to get their HD channel up and going soon after they move here? Maybe that would light a fire under the other locals!


On the down side, as a big Mavs fan, that might not be a good thing. You see, a number of the Mavs games are shown on Cox Cable channel 11, which is the CBS affiliate in Dallas. If we have a local affiliate, Cox might take 11 off their system, and I feel a local station here probably wouldn't carry those same games. Bummer.


But if HD is in the offing, I guess that's a reasonable tradeoff.

 

[hankh]

No idea about the HD. You might look up Phil Hurley and ask. He is the

station manager. Let me know if you find out anything new.

 

[mtrot]

Last I knew, Phil was the manager of NBC56 here in Tyler. Maybe he moved on to the CBS station you mentioned.

 

[hankh]

He moved to Montana, then moved back to Tyler last month to take up

as manager of this new station. I do not know him, but read about this

in the Tyler paper.

 

[mtrot]

Well, Cox now has on their page for Tyler that they are soon to have their HD service in Tyler. They are not saying exactly when or what channels will be available. There are no local channels yet broadcasting in full power DT. But the new CBS affiliate has their new building on Loop 323 being completed and has their dishes and sign up. Their sign says, "HDTV channel 18", so hopefully that will put pressure on Channels 7 and 56 to go full power.

 

[mtrot]

I just got an email yesterday from Cox that they were going to offer their HD service in June!

 

[jimmykce]

I would look into either Voom or DirectTV too.