Raleigh HD Locals

[Poke]

Here some info.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/131255/

Before construction could begin, the station had to dismantle its old 300-foot broadcast relay tower and build anew tower150 feet northwest of the old location.


http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/capcom/news/1998/hd_tower/tower_ready.htm

The New WRAL-HD Tower is Ready to Go

Within the next couple of months, construction will start on the new HDTV tall tower for WRAL-HD. The 1989-foot tower will be built on the same site as the existing WRAL-TV tower located in Auburn, NC.

A unique design will change the look of the skyline at Auburn, however, since the new tower will have a "candelabra" mount at the top. Three arms will extend from the center structure of the tower. Two antennae may be stack-mounted on the end of each arm-making room for a total of six television antennae at the top location.

The WRAL-HD Channel 53 antenna will be stacked on top of the WRAZ-HD, Channel 49, antenna on one arm. WNCN has leased space on another arm for both their new HDTV antenna and their existing analog antenna. The third arm will be left free for future clients.

In addition to television antennae and microwave units for news, etc., the tower will hold various two-way and cellular antennae. We anticipate that construction will take about 12 to 13 months. WRAL-TV's analog antenna will remain on the existing tower in Auburn.

A new transmitter building will sit at the base of the tower under a steel netting for protection from falling ice.


Capitol has offered to lease, for a nominal fee, all of the property surrounding the tower for a major county park. Wake County Commissioners have given initial approval for plans for the park. The facility will offer various athletics fields for baseball, soccer, etc., in addition to a BMX bicycle track. An enclosed conference center will be located near the lake.

 

[Sweepy1]

Transponders?

psnarula,

The head engineer at WRAL told me that the sole reason that Capitol Broadcasting has not allowed the HD signals yet was because Dish wanted to put them in a spot beam that was not large enough to cover the entire WRAL viewing area. If this is the case then with Dish not having any on spot beam the issue is mute....yes?



What is the min signal strength that I will need. I currently have a 76 on Transponder 8 and 82 on transponder 21

Thanks

Michael

 

[bhenge]

Well, over on DBSTalk they are reporting that D* turned on WRAL-HD and WRAZ-HD locals today after a long wait. Maybe there is hope.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=78252

 

[flamtap]

Dear <me>,



Capitol Broadcasting Company is pleased to announce that DirecTV, WRAL-HD, and WRAZ-HD have reached an agreement that allows DirecTV to provide WRAL-HD and WRAZ-HD signals to their paying subscribers.



As most of you are aware, DirecTV’s current spot beam only covers 75% of the TV house holds in the Raleigh market. According to DirecTV if you live in one of the listed zip codes below you may be apart of the 25% of the market that is affected. While this coverage is not optimum for either party, DirecTV is working aggressively to resolve this technical issue and they hope to have a new spot beam in place to cover the entire market by the end of the year.



There is more good news for DirecTV HD-DVR owners. Approximately 30 days ago DirecTV started pushing updates to the HD-DVRs to fix the off air tuner problem. If this was an issue for you I suggest you check out your HD-DVR and see if the update has been downloaded to your device. Please remember that the over-the-air HD signal is still far superior to the HD signal provided by DirecTV and you will also be able to see the additional standard definition signals that all of the local stations include in their HD streams.



Here are the effected zip codes:



23915


24529


27302


27537


27565


27581


27844


28361

23917


24580


27305


27537


27565


27582


27850


28370

23919


24598


27325


27541


27570


27583


27850


28373

23920


27209


27341


27541


27572


27583


27870


28374

23924


27231


27343


27551


27572


27584


27887


28376

23927


27242


27356


27553


27572


27586


27890


28377

23950


27243


27376


27553


27572


27589


28315


28386

23964


27278


27507


27556


27573


27594


28315


28387

23968


27281


27507


27563


27574


27823


28327


28388

23970


27291


27536


27565


27574


27839


28357








While DirecTV and Capitol Broadcasting realize this is not a perfect solution for the entire market, it is the best that both parties can do at this juncture. We sincerely appreciate your patience as DirecTV and Capitol Broadcasting have worked to provide you with the best possible solution to see both WRAL-HD and WRAZ-HD via DirecTV or over-the-air



Dish Update: Capitol Broadcasting is still waiting for a counter offer from Dish. We started negotiations in October and are hopeful to regain momentum soon. If you are a Dish subscriber and have not yet taken advantage of our free over-the-air antenna giveaway program, please follow this link to participate. http://www.wral.com/wral-tv/story/1180307/





Respectfully,



Chuck deCourt

Station Manager

WRAL-TV

 

[dslate69]

That is BS...I searched my 622 and called Dish twice....They still have not been turned up.

That is why I rely on Sat Guys for my information

Did you skip the part that said DISH and Capitol haven't come to terms yet?

 

[Sweepy1]

That letter was For Direct TV not DISH

Auugh..After 1 year hear I still cannot tell the Difference between D* and *H


Dish Update: Capitol Broadcasting is still waiting for a counter offer from Dish. We started negotiations in October and are hopeful to regain momentum soon. If you are a Dish subscriber and have not yet taken advantage of our free over-the-air antenna giveaway program, please follow this link to participate.

Sadness

 

[benyovo]

Tonight I was checking out my guide for the OTAs and I saw that the info for some of the auxillary locals was now populated (I'm sure there are better technical terms for this)

17-02 and 11-02 and some of the others were now giving the 'Local Weather/News' info instead of 'Digital Service'

Interestingly enough, WRAL's local weather/news was correctly populated even though their HD channel still showed 'Digital Service.' I think WRAZ was similarly populated, but I am at work so I can't verify this.

Does this mean that FOX-HD and CBS-HD will soon get their guide issue straightened out??

 

[benyovo]

Tonight I was checking out my guide for the OTAs and I saw that the info for some of the auxillary locals was now populated (I'm sure there are better technical terms for this)

17-02 and 11-02 and some of the others were now giving the 'Local Weather/News' info instead of 'Digital Service'

Interestingly enough, WRAL's local weather/news was correctly populated even though their HD channel still showed 'Digital Service.' I think WRAZ was similarly populated, but I am at work so I can't verify this.

Does this mean that FOX-HD and CBS-HD will soon get their guide issue straightened out??

Well, that didn't last long. . . back to seeing 'Digital Service' on all the aux OTA channels.

 

[Pakbackr]

Ok, I am in Raleigh...new E* customer...installation was yesterday and included a 622, another HD receiver and a SD receiver. All I see is "digital service" for WRAL and WRAZ OTAs. I never had this problem with D* OTA guides. Very frustrating. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have switched!

I have a bigger issue though. During set-up, my OTA digital channels were found during the scan and added to the line-up. However, something screwy is going on because every hour or so, I lose all the OTA digitals...zero signal strength on all. And its not just on the 622, it happens at the same time on the other HD receiver in my bedroom. This tells me that it might have something to do with how the OTA signal is routed through equipment outside the house. Anyone have a clue where to start to fix this problem?

 

[Pakbackr]

Sent an email to WRAL's GM asking if he had an update on the Dish negotiations to add HD locals for WRAL & WRAZ. He replied back...

"I wish I had good news about our Dish negotiations.

To say the least, the negotiations are moving very slowly.

Chuck"

As suspected, doesn't sound very promising!

 

[danderson101]

I'm in Raleigh, thinking of going to dish- Question is- if there is no epg for wral and wraz, how do you record- set manual timers? Once set, can those manual timers be counted on to repeat at the frequecy you set them at. If you're subscribinig to sd locals as well, do the sd locals show up in the epg?

 

[Pakbackr]

I'm in Raleigh, thinking of going to dish- Question is- if there is no epg for wral and wraz, how do you record- set manual timers? Once set, can those manual timers be counted on to repeat at the frequecy you set them at. If you're subscribinig to sd locals as well, do the sd locals show up in the epg?

I am new to Dish, just switched from D* this past Saturday, and I live in Raleigh area. I do subscribe to the locals, and as you are probably aware, that only includes channels 11 and 17 in HD at the moment. However, I am getting epg data for WRAL and WRAZ...most of the time. Every once and awhile, my epg shows "digital service", but this rarely lasts long. I think the key is turning your unit off when not in use which I understand allows the guides to update properly.

I have other issues though, such as periodically losing my OTAs altogether...going from a consistent 90+ signal to 0 and a 739 error screen. I think it has something to do with the DPP44 switch and the power insert placement...perhaps I need to swap out diplexers. If I get this problem fixed, I am one happy camper.

 

[dslate69]

I'm in Raleigh, thinking of going to dish- Question is- if there is no epg for wral and wraz, how do you record- set manual timers? Once set, can those manual timers be counted on to repeat at the frequecy you set them at. If you're subscribinig to sd locals as well, do the sd locals show up in the epg?

I believe the only ones having epg problems with wral and wraz are HD subs, which means there is obviously a bug in the way the info is processed. So it should be extremely easy to fix once DISH acknowledges a problem and decides to look into a fix. The Timers are hit and miss... they work as long as the epg is there (a check switch will fix the epg, temporarily). They also work if the epg is not there but if the "digital service" is showing from 8:00 to 8:30 and you wanted to record from 8:00 to 9:00 it will stop at 8:30 because it thinks the show has ended.
I'd add 30 minutes to any hour long show you want to record to be safe.
That is a good enough work around until it gets fixed.

 

[DISH_NC]

Dropouts of OTA signal will be from your OTA antenna or interference and not the DISH setup. Mine has issues but seems to happen during extremely cold and/or windy periods, even though the OTA antenna is inside - might be the actual WRAL/WRAZ antenna.

My Satellite programs come in fine during those times so I know it's not that.

In terms of the timers, if you set them with the Program Guide available, they seem to trigger just fine although if the Guide info is unavailable when it does fire, it shows up in the guide as Digital Service.... I did have a small issue where all the timers for the WRAL HD OTA channel would no longer 'fire', even when the EPG was showing the programs. I checked the Timer listing and they were there, just not assigning the programs to be recorded (new episodes) or rejected (repeat). If I add the show in again, it finds them and strangely, I have TWO timers in my list now - I attribute it to a software upgrade....

The interesting thing was that if WRAL moved a show due to ACC BB game (to 2:07AM+), the timers would move as well. So far, it seems to do okay, even with the EPG guide info disappearing although you have to go back sometimes and rename your recording.

I expect with D* getting WRAL/WRAZ now, E* is not far behind.

I would speculate that CBC feels that since they were the first HD channel in the US, they can get more $$$ for carriage of their HD content regardless of what they might say.

 

[DISH_NC]

but if the "digital service" is showing from 8:00 to 8:30 and you wanted to record from 8:00 to 9:00 it will stop at 8:30 because it thinks the show has ended.
I'd add 30 minutes to any hour long show you want to record to be safe.
That is a good enough work around until it gets fixed.

This has not happened in my case if the recording was set using the NBR option when the EPG was available. It shows BOTH 30 min blocks to record for the 1 hour show and in the end, I have only a single 60 min (actually 64 min) recording to show for it.

But yes, if you want to record a new timer without the NBR EPG showing, you need to fudge it as described above.

 

[dslate69]

The interesting thing was that if WRAL moved a show due to ACC BB game (to 2:07AM+), the timers would move as well.

A fellow "Criminal Minds" fan. :up

 

[DISH_NC]

A fellow "Criminal Minds" fan. :up

Yup along with CSI:xxx or whatever else is at 9 & 10pm. Used to be nice having CBSHD out of NYC since these pre-emptions almost never happened (along with not having to listen to Tom Smith selling Fords):haha .....

 

[Pakbackr]

My periodic 739 OTA signal loss is definitely not due to WRAL or WRAZ...rather it has to be in the wiring somewhere. I have had same OTA antenna for at least two years and never had this problem with Directv HD Tivo. And when I lose contact, it is across the board on all OTAs. Sometimes I can arrow down to HD Family and then right back up and problem goes away. Once locked on a OTA, I never lose it. That only happens when I change channels.

Anyone know if this and the lost epg data issues might go away if I ran a separate feed to my receiver from the OTA antenna?

 

[dslate69]

Anyone know if this and the lost epg data issues might go away if I ran a separate feed to my receiver from the OTA antenna?

You are running a seperate feed from your OTA antenna or at least you should be.
On the back of the 622 you have SAT IN and OTA IN. Unless you are using a third party diplexer the OTA IN cable should go straight to your OTA.

 

[Pakbackr]

You are running a seperate feed from your OTA antenna or at least you should be. On the back of the 622 you have SAT IN and OTA IN. Unless you are using a third party diplexer the OTA IN cable should go straight to your OTA.

Yes, I am using diplexers now and was wondering if running a separate feed would eliminate some of my issues (739 signal loss issue and the epg loss issue)