Equity channels sold.....will leave satellite...now gone

[melgarga]

Dee_Ann wrote:
...........I will probably add 97 back into it by sticking an extra lnb onto the side of the 101 dish..................

Sounding more like a pro everyday.....lol
Things come and go, it's the nature of the hobby. A pvr function is very handy to fill the void. Nogin and some other stuff went "open" for a few days on the 4DTV box. I meant to burn a few DVDs for the grands but by the time I got around to it they closed them down....oh well maybe next time.

HD fan,
KUHT out of Houston is still on VHF (ch 8), as is KHOU (CBS ch 11) and KTRK (ABC ch 13) and I can confirm that the digital coverage...umm...err ...what's the word....oh yeah...SUCKS compared to the analog "receivability" we used to enjoy. I too am no fan of the digital tv farce that the govt and industry ran on the American public. It cost taxpayers billions to get a TV distro system that is worse than anything that has been conceived since Marconi. The mandate for National Security/Public Safety frequencies smokescreen was a joke. You think they could not have appropriated those UHF channels if they really wanted them regardless?

ATSC is at best a laughable, yet not very funny joke too. At the very least there was a DVB standard available that has been tried and proven for many years. If they insisted to stay VSB they should have left the entire setup alone.
Many Gulf Coast residents are going to be screwed when it comes down to emergency info dissimination with this "all or nothing" signal distribution system. After Ike, I had to run my 13" TV w/rabbit ears off of a DC-AC inverter plugged into the CRV for a week, until I could find a generator. (The power was still down here for another week after that.) I got everything, all vhf and uhf, a bit snowy here and there, but NO freezing/pixing/legovision or dropping out. I've run the exact same experiment,with a CECB and lost about half the ch's and the rest were esentially unwatchable. DTV is CRAP! Relatively speaking.

Which CECBs? Well, let me see....the CM7000 was the most sensitive, but seemed to have more multipath issues (inherient with reasonable sensitivity?) RCA sucked. So did the Maggie. The Goodmind (GE clone) was middle of the road. The Apex was a close 2nd to the CM and the lil free after coupon from HEB Zinwell beat out many of the higher priced unit. Needless to say I've run several scenerios and NONE were as usable under the same conditions as an original analog broadcast.
And yes I know some are "emergency friendly" aka run off of a dc walwart, but I've not seen ANY that have the cig lighter cord included, so Ma and Pa Jones are going to what.........cut 'n' solder a make shift dc power source in the face of an emergency?.....Please!

As for more channels, the subs I've seen dont even compare in quality to the DVB mux's. More channels for bitstarved filler programming, or more multilingual programming. I didnt see even one of the Hispanic channels put on an ENGLISH speaking sub.
Dont get me started on mobile use (actually lack there of) of 8VSB.........
Unfortunately, in one of our renowned member's infamous words, "The bell cant be un-rung"
We can thank our congressmen, the FCC and all the SIGs and PACs that pushed this "Digital TV is better" propaganda thru.
Personally, I think all the mothers of all the morons that had a hand in this need to be lined up and publicly slapped for missing their birth control pill, but what do I know, I still have an analog IRD in my setup and will use a Corotor on C band until they pull the plug on it or the good Lord pulls the plug on me.......
There's is a cute article here on the subject with some humorous sarcasms -
http://www.precisenetworking.com/~mcgatney/hdtv.html
Please excuse my lil blue guy here...:rant: He gets a little out of sorts when he even *thinks* he hears someone beating the "Digital is Better" propaganda drum.....

 

[BurlesonBlue]

Please excuse my lil blue guy here...:rant: He gets a little out of sorts when he even *thinks* he hears someone beating the "Digital is Better" propaganda drum.....

Then your lil blue guy will be none too happy with what I think about digital. While I understand the frustration of those who were on the fringe of the analog signal, and now can't pickup the stations they used too, I have gotten many new channels that I would argue rival those you would see on a basic cable system: Universal Sports, THIS TV, Create, Accuweather, Retro Television Network, Qubo, and ION Life.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Then your lil blue guy will be none too happy with what I think about digital. While I understand the frustration of those who were on the fringe of the analog signal, and now can't pickup the stations they used too, I have gotten many new channels that I would argue rival those you would see on a basic cable system: Universal Sports, THIS TV, Create, Accuweather, Retro Television Network, Qubo, and ION Life.

Well down here on the Gulf Coast we got NO new channels with the digital changeover. We got the same old garbage, just digital garbage now.

If you got new channels, well goody goody for you. Enjoy them.
I want tv that works during hurricanes. Digital tv doesn't work even during light rain storms.

 

[meinename]

=snip=
ATSC is at best a laughable, yet not very funny joke too. At the very least there was a DVB standard available that has been tried and proven for many years.

the ATSC committee got started and finished before the DVB committee
Also in larger DMA's they have been running the ATSC digital transmitters since 1998 (Portland's first one was in 1998 [OPB/PBS] the rest came on in 2001/2002)
Problem was the Receive tuner cost $1000+

If they insisted to stay VSB they should have left the entire setup alone.
Many Gulf Coast residents are going to be screwed when it comes down to emergency info dissimination with this "all or nothing" signal distribution system. After Ike, I had to run my 13" TV w/rabbit ears off of a DC-AC inverter plugged into the CRV for a week, until I could find a generator. (The power was still down here for another week after that.) I got everything, all vhf and uhf, a bit snowy here and there, but NO freezing/pixing/legovision or dropping out. I've run the exact same experiment,with a CECB and lost about half the ch's and the rest were esentially unwatchable. DTV is CRAP! Relatively speaking.

For the longest time all mass production ATSC drew a minimum of 5W+
Last year someone announced they had a mass-producable >1W ATSC tuner

There have been portable ATSC TV's but so far the battery life is less than 2.5 hours

Which CECBs? Well, let me see....the CM7000 was the most sensitive, but seemed to have more multipath issues (inherient with reasonable sensitivity?) RCA sucked. So did the Maggie. The Goodmind (GE clone) was middle of the road. The Apex was a close 2nd to the CM and the lil free after coupon from HEB Zinwell beat out many of the higher priced unit. Needless to say I've run several scenerios and NONE were as usable under the same conditions as an original analog broadcast.

The Zenith is the best at handling multipath from my experience. The DigitalStream boxes are comparable in reception but with User Interface trade-offs.
The RCA boxes are a joke. Easy to set up and use but can't keep a lock worth a dang.

And yes I know some are "emergency friendly" aka run off of a dc walwart, but I've not seen ANY that have the cig lighter cord included, so Ma and Pa Jones are going to what.........cut 'n' solder a make shift dc power source in the face of an emergency?.....Please!

2 power outages last month was all it took to get me on a bender over my lack of an ATSC TV in a emergency situation.
My portable analog Sony TV was a blessing every power outage, keeping us up with 2 of the major news outlets on reliable analog VHF-High

All of the radio stations are either Clearchannel DJ-tron 3000's or similar.
No Breaking news or such in a bad situation. What was left of that died on FM here after 9/11
AM is similar. Regurgitated satellite stations.
The "independent" stations can't spend more than 30 seconds once an hour to talk about local news

As for more channels, the subs I've seen dont even compare in quality to the DVB mux's. More channels for bitstarved filler programming, or more multilingual programming. I didnt see even one of the Hispanic channels put on an ENGLISH speaking sub.
Dont get me started on mobile use (actually lack there of) of 8VSB.........

That was brilliant of the FCC to make this assumption for ATSC reception:
"Every household with a 30 foot antenna and a rotor" :haha

Yes I want my ATSC Mobile/Handheld TV!

Unfortunately, in one of our renowned member's infamous words, "The bell cant be un-rung"
We can thank our congressmen, the FCC and all the SIGs and PACs that pushed this "Digital TV is better" propaganda thru.
Personally, I think all the mothers of all the morons that had a hand in this need to be lined up and publicly slapped for missing their birth control pill, but what do I know, I still have an analog IRD in my setup and will use a Corotor on C band until they pull the plug on it or the good Lord pulls the plug on me.......
There's is a cute article here on the subject with some humorous sarcasms -
http://www.precisenetworking.com/~mcgatney/hdtv.html
Please excuse my lil blue guy here...:rant: He gets a little out of sorts when he even *thinks* he hears someone beating the "Digital is Better" propaganda drum.....

The most I wanted out of digital was 16x9 480p
What I get is Internet video streched to 720p and 1080i

 

[Gary Z]

Dee_Ann

If you live near Beaumont you should be able to pick up the Houston OTA channels with an outdoor antenna I would think they have digital sub channels. I about 30 miles for San Antonio and about 60 from Austin and I get reception form both cities.

I did not noticed any dropouts last year when it rained.

Well down here on the Gulf Coast we got NO new channels with the digital changeover. We got the same old garbage, just digital garbage now.

If you got new channels, well goody goody for you. Enjoy them.
I want tv that works during hurricanes. Digital tv doesn't work even during light rain storms.

 

[magnigyro]

Well...well.... almost done.... I have only one Univision....

This morning the 2 famous Equity transponders...are vacant.

 

[Christopherve7alb]

Digital tv doesn't work even during light rain storms.

Up here I find that DTV channels work really well in the rain it's the sunshine that messes everything up. Talk about low power too, in Canada DTV stations are a joke - the best example I have is a Vancouver based CTV station with an analogue output of 2 MW and a digital one of 13 Kw.

 

[Aguilobo2001]

KUWF, KWKO and KQDK are gone.

 

[rv1pop]

Then your lil blue guy will be none too happy with what I think about digital. While I understand the frustration of those who were on the fringe of the analog signal, and now can't pickup the stations they used too, I have gotten many new channels that I would argue rival those you would see on a basic cable system: Universal Sports, THIS TV, Create, Accuweather, Retro Television Network, Qubo, and ION Life.

Many of these posts are WAY off topic already, so I will add to the Off Topic.
We used to get 4 analog stations fairly well and 6 that were very poor but almost "hear-able". Now the total is ZERO. In fire season with 60 to 100 MPH a wild fire can go from 2 acres to 3500 acres in minutes and with no TV (or scanners) with the emergency broadcast system, the first you may know about the fire is when you see it engulf you vehicles. (Without EBS, they will not latch on.) Minutes later it is at the windowless west side of your house. Hopefully the 100 foot fire trail around your house and the metal siding will keep it from exploding, but.... And unlike the huricanes, there is little warning. The translator stations do not seem to be hooked up to the EBS anymore, either.

Oh, yeah, your ten foot C-band dish pulled up its pole 4 feet out of the ground with its 18 inch diameter glob of concrete 6 weeks before when the wind gust hit 122.3 MPH!

 

[melgarga]

Then your lil blue guy will be none too happy with what I think about digital. While I understand the frustration of those who were on the fringe of the analog signal, and now can't pickup the stations they used too, I have gotten many new channels that I would argue rival those you would see on a basic cable system: Universal Sports, THIS TV, Create, Accuweather, Retro Television Network, Qubo, and ION Life.

Keeping with the OT content....lol....Good thing Tony is so lenient.......

As much as anything else, it's about the boondogle, farce, bill of goods, propaganda that was slicked up and unnecessarily applied to every available orifice of the American public, metaphoricly speaking.
There was NO NEED to go to such extremes to gleen out 4, F-O-U-R, 6 mhz channels for a public safety commnications system that is still not off the drawing board.
There was NO NEED to free up bandwidth for more (14 channels, 84mhz)wireless connectivity and the private industry revenues they will acquire from it's explotation. If anything the Wireless Monster needs to be leashed and heeled.
There was NO NEED to (intentionally? or at least by ommision) associate Digital OTA to HDTV. Remember your Mensa, HD video is digital but not all digital video is HD. The govt did not mandate HD as was eluded to by the powers that be. In fact the govt has no control on how crappy a station chooses to make it's broadcasts, by bitstarving the programming with a mass of usless subs (ie: Accuweather) Further there was NO NEED to obscure the known fact that digital did not propogate as well as analog and those with less than perfect, but still VERY watchable analog signals would be "in the dark"
I'm not saying that free (OTA) TV should not be for all citizens, but statisticly and demigraphicly, OTA is the primary source of TV to the lower income and senior citizen classes. The mid, upper and affluent class , that CAN afford a $2000+ TV and a cable or satellite sub for HD programming, seldom consider OTA digital, HD or not, as a primary source of programming. If those classes want that content, it is likely available to them via their deluxe + HD subscription.

Soo.....the largest OTA audience is the least likely to be able to afford the proper equipment to fully utilize the "benifits" of the "new deal" mode, and those that can afford or do have the proper equipment get their primary programming from non-OTA sources. And I ask again.........we need digital OTA because??????
The Houston market also gained the ION mux, the PBS mux, THiS, and I think the Sports sub on one of the independents....and oh yeah, Accucrud.

I suspect that since you are a member here you are aware that most of that and more are available FTA. If someone in that majority class choose to suplement their Big 10 (counting the hispanic nets) basic analog OTA with these extras that would be easy enough. If anything maybe the govt should have subsidized that move and left analog alone altogether.

Sadly, the proof will be in the next Katrina, Rita, Ike situation faced here on the Gulf Coast, or "the big one" that rocks California, or some other wide area disaster where commnication to the public is essential. Who's worried, after all the govt has done such a fine job managing emergencies, and that's before analog tv was uncerimoniously terminated. Unfortunately , the spin doctors will put it off on everything but poor communications due to DTV's ineffective performance. The sheep will never know.....

As an entertainment medium, digital audio/video transmission is fine, since no one lives or dies by the loss of signal due to rain fade, multipath or digital cliff effect, but since the public airwaves are the primary means of dissemination of vital information during an emergency, the entertainment value should be secondary. Reliability of receiption in the worst case situations should be the driving force for public airwave broadcasts, period.
I feel voilated.

I am totally dedicated to the principal that everyone is entitled to an opinion....especially mine!.....

 

[Mr Tony]

EVERYTHING is gone now except for WUMN & Daystar

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.... its dead

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee_Ann

If you live near Beaumont you should be able to pick up the Houston OTA channels with an outdoor antenna I would think they have digital sub channels. I about 30 miles for San Antonio and about 60 from Austin and I get reception form both cities.

I did not noticed any dropouts last year when it rained.

Well I don't get tv at all anymore since they killed it off. All I ever had was a pair of rabbit ears I used during hurricanes to get local weather and after the storm info.
Once life returned to normal the tv would go back to sleep until the next one.

My parents though have a two story house and about 5 or 6 feet above the roof they have very large tv antenna. They used to get channels from all over, Houston and Lake Charles and sometimes even further than that.
They have a motor on it so they can sit downstairs and turn it around until the picture was crystal clear.

Now they can not get anything at all from Houston. Yes, they have a brand new digital wide screen tv and yes, the antenna is VHF and UHF. They pick up the local channels on it and the local sub channels, like the .1's and .2's and stuff.

It's still the same useless content that it always was before, just digital now.
My dad used to be a tv and radio repairman so he's not stupid, it's all setup properly.

The problem is that the Houston channels no longer reach them as they are over 100 miles away from Houston.

They don't like the new digital tv. And I agree with them. I don't like it either. I'm not about to spend a ton of money on a new tv when I think they look terrible.
And there is nothing worth watching locally except weather reports during hurricanes. And considering that digital tv doesn't work when it's a light sprinkle out, there's going to be trouble for all when the next hurricane comes ashore here.

Anyway, whatever.. I for once in my life agree with my parents, I don't like the new digital stuff.

If you guys like it, more power to you.

 

[Mr Tony]

Keeping with the OT content....lol....Good thing Tony is so lenient.......

since Equity is dead now (all channels gone) its not much of an issue to be OT in it

 

[melgarga]

since Equity is dead now (all channels gone) its not much of an issue to be OT in it

LOL. Yeah, I kinda figured that too.
In a round about way the deviations were not too far OT since the digital rollout contributed considerably to the demise of the multi channel downlink system.
RIP equity.
Got any leads on something similar around the bend? I doubt we will ever see anything so centralized, but with two perfectly good Ku TPs with known good CONUS coverage sitting idle, I'd think the owners would be hungry to put something in those slots. Since the RTN issues have been addressed, they can stay where they are now. Maybe HITS will re-consider a Ku downlink for 4D users, or Starz or one of the other "big boys" offer a ViaAccess or similar based Ala-Carte setup to John Q Public at the same price they sell to DN/DTV. If I could get a Starz etc. pkg for ~10 bucks/mo with a ViaAccess capable DVB box I'd jump on it.
Just hate to see good TPs go to waste, especially after they moved that new satellite over there and all.
Guess we will just have to "stay tuned".....lol

 

[Fizbi]

LOL. ...Guess we will just have to "stay tuned".....lol

Now that's an understatement!

I have confidence that SOMEthing will fill in those TPs. Contracts come and go all the time. It's just a matter of time.

125W, here I come!

 

[Davage]

With Equity gone, I am turning my focus to Extreme DXing via over-the-air. I am over 85 miles from the closest ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/PBS station. There are guys in my area who are experimenting with different antennas and pre-amps with some pretty decent success.

My C-Band dish gives me a set of networks as well on Galaxy 16 and Galaxy 3, but I am looking to buy an HDTV set this fall. I want to get true Hi-Def tv, not the stuff that Bell is over-compressing and sending via their Nimiq satellite, that's why I am starting to play with OTA as well as FTA as a hobby..

The equity channels were great while they lasted.. As with everything that is in the clear, I didn't expect to continue watching them for free forever.

It's hurricane season.. It'll be fun scanning the skies for the live reports from the weather channel guys.

 

[Watusi]

What are the odds of them leaving WUMN on?

EVERYTHING is gone now except for WUMN & Daystar

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.... its dead

 

[Watusi]

I just found this one TP 12104 V s/r 2222 3/4

you should get this channel:

ABC.com affiliate from cheyenne.

 

[Mr Tony]

its actually from Casper

KTWO K2TV and its been there all along

 

[Mr Tony]

What are the odds of them leaving WUMN on?

probably slim. Its right now on both satellites (G18 KU Band & G3 C-Band)..they're probably waiting for all the cable companies here in Minneapolis area to get their systems tuned to wherever it is now and then they'll shut it off.

Here in Minneapolis they use WUMN on cable instead of the national feed. Lots of cable companies here in MN use WUMN.

edit: just a quick check on a site and all cable co's in Mpls/St Paul/surrounding areas have it. Checking outstate, Alexandria, Benson, St Cloud/Little Falls, Marshall, Montevideo, Olivia, Rochester, St Peter, and Gaylord carry it. Some of these towns are 2+ hours away from Minneapolis and since WUMN is only 1000 watts OTA they are picking it up via satellite