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Dish needs to carry all locals in HD. I have checked with the FCC and may file a complaint with them to force dish into carrying all local signal in HD

2013

tomcrown1 said:

Dish needs to carry all locals in HD. I have checked with the FCC and may file a complaint with them to force dish into carrying all local signal in HD

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Go ahead and complain it would be nice for that to happen. Right now all stations need to be carried but only in digital but not HD.

whatchel1 said:

Go ahead and complain it would be nice for that to happen. Right now all stations need to be carried but only in digital but not HD.

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The FCC is revisiting local must carry because of the abuse by the local cable companies and satellite providers.

One of the things that MAY come out of this is that all LOCALS will have to be provided, including sub-channels, at NO COST to the subscribers.

Another aspect which may be revisited is the fact that locals can charge the cable and satellite companies for the rebroadcast rights. The thinking behind this is that they are FREE to the public and carried on PUBLIC AIR WAVES. They should, therefore, remain free to the re-broadcast medium.

That does not mean the local broadcasters are going to allow that as they make lots of money off the newfound retransmission fees.

They are also being squeezed by the FCC because the original intent of the additional spectrum, which allows them to carry sub-channels, was NOT to have a 24 hour weather channel on each sub-feed, but local programming and other educational and entertainment programming.

PBS in Chicago, on WTTW, has done this very effectively with four (4) completely different program feeds - all PBS, all educational, on all four of their feeds simultaneously.

In fact, both PBS and their Chicago affiliate, WTTW, , they received RAVE reviews when they broadcast Christmas Concert content on Christmas Eve, live from a PBS feed in New York City that was absolutely exceptional. Full 1080P over the air - DN still compresses it to 1080i and that does take away half the picture data, making it a far less superior picture.

Hard to believe

chicagonettech said:

In fact, both PBS and their Chicago affiliate, WTTW, , they received RAVE reviews when they broadcast Christmas Concert content on Christmas Eve, live from a PBS feed in New York City that was absolutely exceptional. Full 1080P over the air - DN still compresses it to 1080i and that does take away half the picture data, making it a far less superior picture.

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The 1080p OTA is the hard to believe part. Don't really know of any OTA tuners that will accept that signal. If you know of one what is it?

whatchel1 said:

The 1080p OTA is the hard to believe part. Don't really know of any OTA tuners that will accept that signal. If you know of one what is it?

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The Phillips flap panel LCD sets we run throughout the house have built in tuners which support 1080P without a problem. Even the 22" Phillips set I purchased at Target for my office, on sale over the Christmas holidays, will display a full 1090P picture once you run the software update from Phillips.

We are running Dish Network VIP722 receivers with the optional OTA tuner module, purchase seperately via the Dish Network website. This is an exceptional tuner which provides full 1080P to the set 1 HD output [HDMI cable in our case] of the VIP722. It also provides 720P to the SD output for the second set - all in one tuner.

The OTA antenna which feeds all three of our receivers, along with a small HD set in the basement laundry area, is an RCA OTA digital antenna which feeds into a distribution amplifier / splitter on home runs - not piggybacked over the same coax as the satellite LNB data.

Finally, we protect all of our equipment: sets; surround sound; satellite receivers; even the power supply for the DPP44 which brings allows us to use a single run from our Dish Network 1000+ with 110, 119, 118.5 and 129, for both tuners on the VIP722 receivers with Tripp Lite Smart Digital LCD UPS 1000VA AVR The manufacturer part number: SMART1000LCD] power conditioning unit is a 1000 VA unit; they are also available in 1200 VA - manufacturer's part number SMART1200LCD, and 1500 VA - manufacturer's part number SMART1500LCD

These take our wildly unregulated power from ComEd Chicago, which can range from a low of 100 volts to a high of 135 volts, and gives us a constant 120 volts output - sinewave, not square wave. It protects against power overages, by clamping the power down to the more reasonable level of 120 volts; and protects us against brownouts - periods of low power, most common during our hot months of July and August, when the book binderies and other manufacturing plants located just south of us, and powered on the same sub-station, are running high power demands.

Remember, digital equipment does not like low voltages, high voltages or power surges. Ditital equipment prefers very regulated power sources, which, when properly regulated, will greatly extend the life of the equipment. When digital equipment is attached to well regulated, clean power sources, it will not only last a lot longer, but the software will be prone to far fewer glitches and the HDMI connections between your equipment will also be far more reliable. Sorry, I don't have a solution to either lost remote controls or low batteries yet.

NOTE: Powering your Dish Network receivers through any of the TrippLite products will totally disable their ability to communicate via the built in DishCOMM capabilities of the receiver lines with DishCOMM capabilities.

check you manual

chicagonettech said:

The Phillips flap panel LCD sets we run throughout the house have built in tuners which support 1080P without a problem. Even the 22" Phillips set I purchased at Target for my office, on sale over the Christmas holidays, will display a full 1090P picture once you run the software update from Phillips.

We are running Dish Network VIP722 receivers with the optional OTA tuner module, purchase seperately via the Dish Network website. This is an exceptional tuner which provides full 1080P to the set 1 HD output [HDMI cable in our case] of the VIP722. It also provides 720P to the SD output for the second set - all in one tuner.

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1080p is input into your set via HDMI or component not OTA. The following are the present standards.

Format standards:

The five main ATSC formats of DTV currently broadcast in the U.S. are:

* Standard definition—480i, to maintain compatibility with existing NTSC sets when a digital television broadcast is converted back to an analog one[citation needed]—either by a converter box or a cable/satellite operator's proprietary equipment
* Enhanced definition—480p, about the same quality as current DVDs
* High definition—720p
* High definition—1080i
* High definition—1080p (only used by a few cable operators, currently no terrestrial stations broadcast in 1080p)

whatchel1 said:

1080p is input into your set via HDMI or component not OTA. The following are the present standards.

Format standards:

The five main ATSC formats of DTV currently broadcast in the U.S. are:

* Standard definition—480i, to maintain compatibility with existing NTSC sets when a digital television broadcast is converted back to an analog one[citation needed]—either by a converter box or a cable/satellite operator's proprietary equipment
* Enhanced definition—480p, about the same quality as current DVDs
* High definition—720p
* High definition—1080i
* High definition—1080p (only used by a few cable operators, currently no terrestrial stations broadcast in 1080p)

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WTTW, the PBS affiliate in Chicaog is constantly ahead of the curve with both quality and transmission. While they routinely run 720P for their regular HD, they have experimented with, and transmitted special program segments in 1090P.

While your standards are generally true, they do not hold up in the case of experimental transmissions - which DO show up very well on the OTA tuners in use on some sets.

You might also want to watch the transition of Comcast to XFINITY where, I believe, if the intial reports I have seen are true, there will be more 1080P than anything else once the transition is completed next year. They will be well ahead of the curve and well beyond any other transmision facility.

Again, I acknowledge your standards, but they do not necessarily hold true in the Chicago market with the PBS affiliate.

Any info

chicagonettech said:

WTTW, the PBS affiliate in Chicaog is constantly ahead of the curve with both quality and transmission. While they routinely run 720P for their regular HD, they have experimented with, and transmitted special program segments in 1090P.

While your standards are generally true, they do not hold up in the case of experimental transmissions - which DO show up very well on the OTA tuners in use on some sets.

You might also want to watch the transition of Comcast to XFINITY where, I believe, if the intial reports I have seen are true, there will be more 1080P than anything else once the transition is completed next year. They will be well ahead of the curve and well beyond any other transmision facility.

Again, I acknowledge your standards, but they do not necessarily hold true in the Chicago market with the PBS affiliate.

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Any info that they have been able to transmit 1080p OTA would be appreciated. I have seen encoders that could do this (in MPEG 4)but have never know of a home decoder that would accept the signal.

whatchel1 said:

Any info that they have been able to transmit 1080p OTA would be appreciated. I have seen encoders that could do this (in MPEG 4)but have never know of a home decoder that would accept the signal.

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I make no promised on getting data from these programs to this thread as, for obvious competitive reasons, the details are not available to the public. As soon as that data is beyond the testing stages and the algorithms are made available to testing centers and developers I suspect there will be a lot more data available.

Given the fact that Sony is pushing for 3D - which I don't see flying in general distribution at this time - and that both Sony and others are pushing for 4D, I suspect there will be huge developments in both software and hardware within the next few months.

The delivery wars are on here in Chicago now:

- AT&T is putting full fiber distribution into the alleys on the North Side of Chicago and fiber to the door. [Rumors are AT&T will carry IP TV on the new fiber installs and drop Direct TV from their package bundle.]

The following pictures are of the concrete deck and electric meter housing set for the AT&T fiber distribution cabinet. This will be approximately 4.5 feet tall and sit to the left of the meter housing and disconnect. There is a generator outlet on the side of the power cabinet, in case of extended outages, and there will be batteries inside the actual fiber cabinet which are kept charged by the power feed.

City of Chicago electrical inspectors need to inspect before ComEd connects to 220 volt feed and set meter and then AT&T will complete install of cabinet and fiber,

[RANT]

NOTE OF CLARIFICATION: For those familiar with the super-enhanced City of Chicago electrical codes, this is a single-phase 220V power feed with a WHITE, RED and BLACK cable. The City of Chicago forbids the use of red jacketed wiring where there is no 3-phase because of confusion issues with rehabs of old factories where 3-phase has been unintentionally brought into a non-3-Phase environment by improperly trained contractors [read cheap labor picked up off the street by less than scrupulous contractors]. ATT's sub-contractors were not aware of the fact that the red wire is not supposed to be used when there is no presence of 3-Phase in Chicago, and when questioned, stated that the City's inspectors keep passing them and ignoring the fact that the feed contains a red jacketed cable. That's why we keep putting building inspectors and aldermen in jail in this City.

[/RANT]

ATT Base #1 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #2 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #3 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #4 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #5 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #6 - Chicago 51-233201

ATT Base #7 - Chicago 51-233201


- Comcast is using Chicago, and 10 other sites as their initial deployment for XFINITY began in earnest, in Chicago, in January. Promises have been advertised locally [local OTA only] for up to 100 meg download speeds in initial press releases.

- the closest anyone else has come to upping their bandwidth is Dish Network's deployment of Exhostar XIV, along with their moving and replacing other satellites in recent months, to replace the aging bird at 119 W, enhance their capacity and ability to manipulate spot beams.

While this technology continues to grow, and without getting political about the current financial crisis, I believe the industry needs to make existing equipment capable of being software upgraded without being replaced.

Between the cost of the equipment, and the cost of the provider's services, there is a hard and fast wall approaching when consumers are going to say "goodbye" to those ever increasing payments and realize their portfolios are not growing nearly as fast as they were three years ago. When that happens, there is a real danger that this entire industry will become the next victim of the current financial crisis.

I have been involved in some of the 1080P OTA testing and like what I see. If I have to upgrade everything again to take advantage of "3D and 4D" home viewing technology, or if my cost of service delivery skyrockets - even though I'm not using it, simply so others who have chosen to go that route can participate, it ain't going to sit well with us and will will pull the plug on future equipment purchases, possibly pulling the plug on delivery as well.

Considering the fact that at least one of the Chicago FTA stations are dedicating sub-channels to full-length classic movies - with limited commercial interruptions; and considering that the local sports teams will continue to drive advances in FTA HD broadcasts -- consider WGN TV - Channel 9, Chicago, and their reinforcement to the new owners of the Chicago Cubs regarding their continued, and future, support of FULL HD FTA broadcasts of all Cub's games; I believe there is a very secure future in FTA television. I also believe that will drive the use of full 1080P FTA broadcasting with a lot more locals in the Chicago area as the station owners realize that more than 40% of those who watch Television in Chicago still use FTA - without cable or satellite delivery.

Even in rural areas of Michigan, near Saugatuck, where we have several retired friends [and will probably retire ourselves within the next 7 years], they actively chose NOT to participate in cable or satellite. We put up a high-gain FTA HD antenna for them, on a 40 foot wooden poll in their back yard, with distribution amplifier, for less than $100.00 [gotta love eBay!]. With analog FTA, they received two stations, they now receive five and, occasionally, will receive skip broadcasts of HD locals from Green Bay, Wisconsin - 100 miles north and 40 miles across Lake Michigan from them - off the back of the antenna - their property is high on a hill, about 15 stories above Lake Michigan to begin with. No problem with signal stability and between PBS and ABC, it's all the television they want to watch. They supplement that with film - yes, cellulose - and DVD's they've purchased for their collection [we do the same incidentally.]

At some point there is a limit to what we, the end users, will tolerate in programming costs: this includes both having to purchase new equipment and higher delivery costs. Both equipment manufacturers and delivery venues need to keep this in mind so that the consumers don't abandon them completely and go back to FTA broadcast or, what's left of FTA satellite - providing they can afford the equipment.

chicagonettech said:

- Comcast is using Chicago, and 10 other sites as their initial deployment for XFINITY began in earnest, in Chicago, in January. Promises have been advertised locally [local OTA only] for up to 100 meg download speeds in initial press releases.
.

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Portland is one of the 11 test cities. When I looked into it, superficially I admit, Xfinity didn't appear to be anything more than a renaming of the existing company, much as our existing phone company changed its name from 'US West' to 'Qwest'.

I am excited too about the prospect of new technologies, and I am willing to pay more for a better product, but I am not yet convinced that there is any relationship between the name change to Xfinity and experiments with 1080p, 3D, and 4D broadcasts.