Seattle HD Locals

[kstile]

Just to keep this thread alive, I received this today from Mr. Goodman (again, a prompt, courteous reply):

It's between the Satellite carrier and our parent corp. as they work out
what's referred to as a Re-Transmission Consent" agreement, but really the
satellite providers still do not have enough capacity on the satellites
presently to handle the second tier networks, FOX, WB & UPN, in my humble
opinion. But it should be soon, hang in there!

All I can say is that it better be here by football season! And it's interesting that someone that works at a Fox affilliate (his title is at Tribune Television NW) considers Fox to be a "second tier" network.

 

[long_time_DNC]

That is interesting! I wonder why he considers FOX a second-tier network? I've heard them referred to numerous times as "one of the big four".

I have been patient and will continue to be so for about another 3 weeks, then I'm going to start pestering both KCPQ and Echostar about it. I want to see the hawks in HD. Spokane has FOX in HD...so what's the hold-up?

 

[Jolard]

Would love Fox and UPN and WB in Seattle too, although I am not holding my breath, espcially for UPN and WB.

I broke down yesterday and bought an over the air antenna. Live on the border of Lynnwood and Bothell, and I just bought a cheap indoor antenna from radio shack. Works great, I can pick up all the channels, only concern is signal strength, so I may upgrade to an outdoor antenna.

Just wish Dish would get them and then I don't need to bother!

 

[kstile]

While it would be nice to have the reliability of getting the HD locals via Dish, if you can get them via OTA don't forget that will allow you to record three HD programs at once! Of course you can't do that too much with only 30 hours of HD on the 622, but I have my OTA set up just in case I need that...

And don't forget that WB & UPN are disappearing in a few months to replaced by the CW. Maybe since there's just one, Dish will have better luck picking it up in HD (Smallville would be nice!)

And I agree about football season - the clock is a-tickin'...

 

[cebbigh]

I re-aimed my CM4248 to maximize KCPQ in anticipation of football season. Lost reliability on KOMO, KIRO, and KING in the process. Mill Creek area stuck in the shadow of a hill blocking the transmitters. Signal strength max on KCPQ now at approx 70. When weather changes in the fall that can drop. They better get KCPQ up before football season!!

On a different note. It seems to me the PQ on the 3 HD stations we do get from Dish has improved in the past few days. Other cities are reporting this. Do others in Seattle see it or am I just wishing too much?

 

[Jim5506]

I re-aimed my CM4248 to maximize KCPQ in anticipation of football season. Lost reliability on KOMO, KIRO, and KING in the process. Mill Creek area stuck in the shadow of a hill blocking the transmitters. Signal strength max on KCPQ now at approx 70. When weather changes in the fall that can drop. They better get KCPQ up before football season!!

Two months of frevent prayer.

 

[Jolard]

Mill Creek area stuck in the shadow of a hill blocking the transmitters. Signal strength max on KCPQ now at approx 70

I live a little south of you, and I have trouble getting a good signal for KPCQ as well, usually in the 70's, maximum 80's. The real problem is to get that signal that good, I have to sacrifice PBS and ABC for over the air. What a pain.

NBC and CBS I get 90's, no problem, WB and UPN I get very marginal, usually 60's, so I am constantly losing them and they are only good for watching when the other tuners are busy.

What are other people's signal numbers? I currently have a small indoor pre-amped antenna from Radio Shack that I got for $30. I am trying to figure out if it is worth upgrading to an external antenna. I tried out three other antennas from Circuit City and Best Buy for between $40 and $70, and ended up returning them all because the $30 Radio Shack one worked the best, and was the smallest and had the highest wife acceptance factor.

So basically now I am getting around:
60 for ABC (not enough to maintain a constant signal)
90 for NBC
90 for CBS
60 for PBS 9
70 for PBS 11
75 to 80 for Fox
65 for UPN
65 for WB

I live in Lynnwood, right near the border of Bothell. What numbers are everyone else getting, and with what kind of antennas?

 

[cebbigh]

Before I adjusted to maximize KCPQ:

64-68 for ABC (occasional signal lossl)
72-75 for NBC (reliable)
72-75 for CBS (reliable)
63-65 for PBS 9 (not reliable)
64-65 for Fox (reliable except during storms and Seahawks games)
78-80 for UPN (reliable)
75-78 for WB (reliable)

Now get:
ABC (not usable, using DishHD signal)
NBC (not usable, using DishHD signal)
CBS (not usable, using DishHD signal)
PBS 9 (not usable, using DishSD signal)
68-71 for Fox (??? if reliable, hope I don't have to find out)
70-72 for UPN (reliable)
69-72 for WB (reliable)

Antenna pointed approx 4 degrees west of where it was. Once KCPQ is online I can repoint easily enough.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I'm getting more blocking and pixelization on the Seattle HD locals the past few days...especially when they switch images quickly or graphics come up in programming or commercials.

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[rixhd]

I'm getting more blocking and pixelization on the Seattle HD locals the past few days...especially when they switch images quickly or graphics come up in programming or commercials.

Anyone else seeing this?

Yup, me too. Never bad enough to lose the signal or lock the set though. It acts like its related to compression of fast moving parts of the screen. More annoying than anything.

I also noticed that channel 4 OTA is down quite often. Just can't seem to find the signal. 5 and 7 are usually fine. I have rebooted and re-scanned the channels but it doesn't help.

Ah the joys of being on the cutting edge!

 

[long_time_DNC]

I can't do OTA from here. Too many big hills in the way...

I may have to write dishquality about the image garbage. Like you said, it's never bad enough to lose signal or lock-up the 622, but it's annoying and it wasn't like this a week or so ago.

Yep, sometimes the cutting edge is the bleeding edge...

 

[cebbigh]

6417 KCPQ we miss you. Please call home.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I think it's getting time to write E* and Tribune Broadcasting...

 

[kstile]

Agreed. I was just thinking this morning that as helpful and forthcoming as Mr. Goodman has been at KCPQ, since the issue is at Tribune, the time to start bothering them is now. One more followup from my conversation with Mr. Goodman when I asked for info on who up the food chain to contact (with a joking reference to rupert.murdoch@news.com):

---

No we on the local level have no affect and if you send email to Murdoch you
have the wrong owner, we are a fox affiliate not a Fox O & O but my
corporate would like to get all it's stations DTV signals on the Satellite
ASAP as it's in our best interests to do so. Point to be made, we do not
receive any fees for our content on Cable & Satellite, but the more we can
expose our advertisers content to greater distribution does increase what we
can charge for advertising time on our air.

Feel free to email in and if I hear something, I'm happy to pass it along,
but for now I am a passenger on the bus sitting next to you.

---

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and he what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, so who do we write to at Tribune broadcasting? I'll do some research and what I can discover and post it here if someone else doesn't beat me to it.