[Barmat]

I seem to remember this happening last year or so for a couple of weeks. Right now it looks like some one is giving us the feed from a poorly aimed set of rabbit ears. I think I'll e-mail KQED's technical department about this. I can't wait for the HD feed for this channel to start.

 

[Steve Rhodes]

I seem to remember this happening last year or so for a couple of weeks. Right now it looks like some one is giving us the feed from a poorly aimed set of rabbit ears. I think I'll e-mail KQED's technical department about this. I can't wait for the HD feed for this channel to start.

Is it schedule to go HD? If so, when?

We used to be avid PBS viewers, but without HD available for it, we watch PBS shows later on DVD instead of suffering through SD.

 

[tweaked]

I'm in Sacramento, where KVIE's the PBS affiliate. D*'s providing SD-only here as well. What I'm hoping for is an ability to 'steal' content from the Bay Area, specifically KQED, once I lower my Winegard OTA antenna and install a rotor. When conditions are right (and the antenna's aimed that way), we're able to pull in very solid signals.

The addition of an OTA tuner in combination with one of D*'s DVR's creates a viable workaround and in my case, has helped overcome a lack of HD content as several HD channels are offered OTA, including ones from KVIE & KQED.

 

[Littledude]

I'm in Sacramento, where KVIE's the PBS affiliate. D*'s providing SD-only here as well. What I'm hoping for is an ability to 'steal' content from the Bay Area, specifically KQED, once I lower my Winegard OTA antenna and install a rotor. When conditions are right (and the antenna's aimed that way), we're able to pull in very solid signals.

The addition of an OTA tuner in combination with one of D*'s DVR's creates a viable workaround and in my case, has helped overcome a lack of HD content as several HD channels are offered OTA, including ones from KVIE & KQED.

I remember a couple of years ago when all I had was an H20, patiently waiting for an HR20, that I was able to pull in about 4 of the digital stations. KQED was one of the ones that was consistently there. That CSM station was always there. Fox and ABC were in and out. The OTA tuner in the H20 was something else.
Saw the KQED's feed this weekend. I think Barmat was too kind in his description about the feed from a poorly aimed set of rabbit ears. It looks like someone just tossed their morning coffee all over the screen. Maybe they are trying to justify multicasting on the digital side by giving a horrenduous analog signal.

 

[flipptyfloppity]

Is it schedule to go HD? If so, when?

We used to be avid PBS viewers, but without HD available for it, we watch PBS shows later on DVD instead of suffering through SD.

KQED has problems in HD too. They try to shove too many channels into one 6MHz signal.

To make things worse, for quite a while, KQED didn't have a digital channel that replicated the programming on their analog channel. They essentially ran 6 channels with different schedules.

I just looked at KQED over D* SD LIL. Pretty funny. They have some kind of massive multipath problem right now. No actual snow though.

 

[cdbcorn]

I've been noticing the horrible picture quality as well. If I do try to zoom in on a LB HD program (which is shown in a small box, since KQED is sadly only SD right now), the only real effect is to see the ghosting and lack of focus. On occasion, we've lost the picture entirely.

What I really want is the channel in HD.

 

[Irae]

Thanks for all these replies....it does somehow help to know that I'm not alone with this problem! It sounds like a DirecTV issue--I don't quite understand how it could be KQED's fault if other systems--cable, OTA with a good antenna, etc--are providing decent SD signals. But how to get DirecTV to deal with it?

We live part of the year in Arizona, where we have an HD setup, with an HR-21 and the AM-21 that adds OTA. With just a pair of rabbit ears attached to the AM-21, we get perfect HD reception of local stations on our HR-21. There is no satellite HD signal for the PBS station, of course, so that's how we watch it. I've been assuming that this would also work in the Bay Area, but it sounds as if perhaps some have trouble with it?

Thank again.

 

[flipptyfloppity]

Thanks for all these replies....it does somehow help to know that I'm not alone with this problem! It sounds like a DirecTV issue--I don't quite understand how it could be KQED's fault if other systems--cable, OTA with a good antenna, etc--are providing decent SD signals. But how to get DirecTV to deal with it?

We live part of the year in Arizona, where we have an HD setup, with an HR-21 and the AM-21 that adds OTA. With just a pair of rabbit ears attached to the AM-21, we get perfect HD reception of local stations on our HR-21. There is no satellite HD signal for the PBS station, of course, so that's how we watch it. I've been assuming that this would also work in the Bay Area, but it sounds as if perhaps some have trouble with it?

Thank again.

KQED 9 is the strongest digital station in SF. It's pretty easy to pick up. Some just don't have OTA capability and some don't even have HD capability, so it's SD LIL for them!

Perhaps D* is just making KQED 9 look like crap to get back at them for not giving them free carriage of their HD signal.

 

[cdbcorn]

Perhaps D* is just making KQED 9 look like crap to get back at them for not giving them free carriage of their HD signal.

Is that really the issue? Why would PBS charge for carrying the HD signal?

 

[flipptyfloppity]

Is that really the issue? Why would PBS charge for carrying the HD signal?

You mean why would PBS charge D*?

Because they can. They perceive that the customer sees their service as of value and therefore it will increase the value of D*'s locals service. So they try to get a piece of the pie.

For a while analog channels played a similar game with carriers. They had two choices, either force D* and cable operators to carry their channel ("must carry"), or try to extract money or value from D*/cable while running the risk of the carrier opting not to carry them.

One big time channel in the SF Bay Area, KRON, forced Bay Area cable operators to carry another channel they were starting, Bay TV, in exchange for being allowed to carry KRON. That failed and shortly thereafter, KRON made a power play on NBC and lost, now they are a rather small-time independent channel.

The FCC didn't make "must carry" an option for the digital variants of stations for various reasons, some say the biggest reason was that carriers didn't want to be forced to carry local stations with no perceived value (like ones to turn all their air time over to shopping networks).

It is unclear to me whether "must carry" becomes an option again once the digital cutover is completed.

 

[jgreen1024]

Adding my report too that KQED over D* looks like crap. This started a couple weeks ago from what I remember. Fortunately my 2 year old hasn't really noticed all the apparent ghosting present in Curious George, Sesame Street, etc. And you know, it actually makes Teletubbies look *better*.