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A Quick Aside About the TV Dial. DTV Transition Nears Completion

D

DeadElvis

OK, I know this is a radio board, but I thought this might be of at least mild interest to some...

It seems that the last full-power TV station in the Memphis area has completed its construction of a full-power DTV station. The last holdout, WBUY-40, which had been operating on a flea-powered transmitter for some time, is now full-powered.

Unlike most other DTVs, the TBN affiliate is not passing any true HD programming, opting instead to use its "bit budget" for a stable of standard-def programming, all Christian, of course. Those with DTV-capable receivers will find a mix of 5 (yes, 5!) programming streams including Christian Rock videos, Spanish religious programming, a kids channel, and two streams of preaching, preaching, preaching.

WBUY brings up the rear in upgrading. Most recently before WBUY, WHBQ made the jump to full-power status, just before the end of the year.

Of course, as we approach the deadline for analog shut-down in 2009, there will be some channel changes. WMC's DTV stream will move from channel 52 back to channel 5, and WHBQ will move its DTV signal from 53 to channel 13. It's odd... with DTV everyone WANTS to be UHF; VHF is less desirable. Sadly, WMC and WHBQ don't have the option of staying on their current DTV channels. WKNO has elected to stay on 29. Further, we still have a couple of full-power stations to come on. A CP remains outstanding for channel 14, which I suspect will sign-on as a stand-alone DTV. A similar situation exists for the channel 56 CP, owned by the WKNO people. They, though, have requested to move to channel 10 after the 2009 deadline, as channel 56 will not be available.

The local LPTVs will "flash-cut" to DTV eventually, I suppose.

Fun stuff.

DE
 
> Fun stuff.
>
> DE
>

Unless you really don't want to buy a $2500 TV...
<P ID="signature">______________
Never hold a cat and a dustbuster at the same time.</P>
 
> > Fun stuff.
> >
> > DE
> >
>
> Unless you really don't want to buy a $2500 TV...
>
The gubmint gonna buy everbody a free anadigilog converter for they teebees. You hide and watch cher.
 
DE:

Help me (and probably a bunch of others) out with something here. I live in Knoxville, formerly a longtime Memphian and bought my first HDTV set last summer. If I want to watch the NBC affiliate here, WBIR channel 10, my set brings the HDTV signal in on channel 10-1. There is a full time weather broadcast on 10-2. I was recently at a friends home in Memphis and I think she got channel 5's HDTV broadcast on 5-1 on her set. You mention WMC's DTV broadcast is on channel 52. Can it actually be picked up on a channel 52, or does the HDTV circuitry convert it to 5-1? I am still trying to figure my way around all this. Incidentally, I have an LG 30" HDTV monitor I got at Best Buy for less than $900.00 and I have been quite pleased with the picture quality of HDTV broadcasts. One does not have to go out and spend thousands on a plasma set to get a great picture.

SHF


> OK, I know this is a radio board, but I thought this might
> be of at least mild interest to some...
>
> It seems that the last full-power TV station in the Memphis
> area has completed its construction of a full-power DTV
> station. The last holdout, WBUY-40, which had been
> operating on a flea-powered transmitter for some time, is
> now full-powered.
>
> Unlike most other DTVs, the TBN affiliate is not passing any
> true HD programming, opting instead to use its "bit budget"
> for a stable of standard-def programming, all Christian, of
> course. Those with DTV-capable receivers will find a mix of
> 5 (yes, 5!) programming streams including Christian Rock
> videos, Spanish religious programming, a kids channel, and
> two streams of preaching, preaching, preaching.
>
> WBUY brings up the rear in upgrading. Most recently before
> WBUY, WHBQ made the jump to full-power status, just before
> the end of the year.
>
> Of course, as we approach the deadline for analog shut-down
> in 2009, there will be some channel changes. WMC's DTV
> stream will move from channel 52 back to channel 5, and WHBQ
> will move its DTV signal from 53 to channel 13. It's odd...
> with DTV everyone WANTS to be UHF; VHF is less desirable.
> Sadly, WMC and WHBQ don't have the option of staying on
> their current DTV channels. WKNO has elected to stay on 29.
> Further, we still have a couple of full-power stations to
> come on. A CP remains outstanding for channel 14, which I
> suspect will sign-on as a stand-alone DTV. A similar
> situation exists for the channel 56 CP, owned by the WKNO
> people. They, though, have requested to move to channel 10
> after the 2009 deadline, as channel 56 will not be
> available.
>
> The local LPTVs will "flash-cut" to DTV eventually, I
> suppose.
>
> Fun stuff.
>
> DE
>
 
> DE:
>
> Help me (and probably a bunch of others) out with something
> here. I live in Knoxville, formerly a longtime Memphian and
> bought my first HDTV set last summer. If I want to watch
> the NBC affiliate here, WBIR channel 10, my set brings the
> HDTV signal in on channel 10-1. There is a full time
> weather broadcast on 10-2. I was recently at a friends home
> in Memphis and I think she got channel 5's HDTV broadcast on
> 5-1 on her set. You mention WMC's DTV broadcast is on
> channel 52. Can it actually be picked up on a channel 52,
> or does the HDTV circuitry convert it to 5-1? I am still
> trying to figure my way around all this. Incidentally, I
> have an LG 30" HDTV monitor I got at Best Buy for less than
> $900.00 and I have been quite pleased with the picture
> quality of HDTV broadcasts. One does not have to go out and
> spend thousands on a plasma set to get a great picture.

What's going on is "Remapping." It's about how a station is branded

I'll use WMC-TV as an example. I suspect that it works in a similar manner in Knoxville.

WMC has its analog transmitter on Channel 5, and has for many years. But, its digital signal is on another channel, in this case UHF channel 52. Now, the FCC allows the station to have its signal tell your TV to "remap," which means it will show "5-1, 5-2, and 5-3," although it is transmitting on another channel. Rules ONLY allow a station to map to its over the air DTV channel (52) OR to its analog channel (5). It's WMC's choice.

WBIR has its DTV on channel 31. But, it's remapping, I assume, as "10-1, etc." The odd thing is WBIR may be returning to channel 10 after the analogs go off (but, I see that is not fully settled yet). WMC will similarly return to 5, since NO CHANNELS above 51 will be available for anyone after the analogs go off in 2009. But, that's a discussion for another time.

Did I answer your question?

Oh, and I got a nice 30" HDTV at Best Buy for a similar amount. Mine's a Samsung, and I like it a lot. Gonna get a bigger one for the family room soon.

DE
 
> What's going on is "Remapping." It's about how a station is
> branded
>
> I'll use WMC-TV as an example. I suspect that it works in a
> similar manner in Knoxville.
>
> WMC has its analog transmitter on Channel 5, and has for
> many years. But, its digital signal is on another channel,
> in this case UHF channel 52. Now, the FCC allows the
> station to have its signal tell your TV to "remap," which
> means it will show "5-1, 5-2, and 5-3," although it is
> transmitting on another channel. Rules ONLY allow a station
> to map to its over the air DTV channel (52) OR to its analog
> channel (5). It's WMC's choice.
>
> WBIR has its DTV on channel 31. But, it's remapping, I
> assume, as "10-1, etc." The odd thing is WBIR may be
> returning to channel 10 after the analogs go off (but, I see
> that is not fully settled yet). WMC will similarly return
> to 5, since NO CHANNELS above 51 will be available for
> anyone after the analogs go off in 2009. But, that's a
> discussion for another time.
>
> Did I answer your question?
>
> DE


Yes, that helped a bunch. Thanks! Also, even though I have DirecTV satellite service, I get my local DTV stations using an over the air antenna. I am very happy with the results.

SHF
 
A few thoughts:

> station. The last holdout, WBUY-40, which had been
> operating on a flea-powered transmitter for some time, is
> now full-powered.

You think WBUY was flea-powered? At 4.5kw, they had 10dB on our TBN station here in Nashville! - WPGD was wasting their time with 400 watts on channel 51... I doubt they even made it to Gallatin five miles away...

> Of course, as we approach the deadline for analog shut-down
> in 2009, there will be some channel changes. WMC's DTV
> stream will move from channel 52 back to channel 5, and WHBQ
> will move its DTV signal from 53 to channel 13.

The announced permanent channels for Memphis:

960405KF-14/xx 14
WBUY-40/41 40
WHBQ-13/53a 13
WKNO-10/29 29
WLMT-30/31 31
WMAV-18/36 36
WMC-5/52a 5
WPTY-24/25 25
WPXX-50/51 51
WREG-3/28 28

Some kind of database glitch killed channel 56...

> with DTV everyone WANTS to be UHF; VHF is less desirable.

Not strictly true. Really, high-band VHF channels 7-13 are the most desirable place to be. Less power is required to achieve equal coverage than for UHF (so your utility bills are reduced, not to mention the VHF transmitter is less expensive & easier to maintain), yet you don't face the electrical noise and "skip" propagation that affects low-band channels 2-6. I'm finding that usually, when a station has the option of having its permanent DTV operation on channels 7-13, it will do so.

I'm somewhat surprised WMC didn't negotiate to use one of the channels abandoned by another station. Our channel 5 station here in Nashville has also decided to return to channel 5 (from 56) although one would think they too could have negotiated to get a channel from one of the Sinclair stations.

> The local LPTVs will "flash-cut" to DTV eventually, I
> suppose.

Possibly, but... The FCC is opening a filing window for a couple of weeks (I want to say the beginning of May) for LPTV stations to file for a "companion" channel for digital conversion. That would be a similar scheme to what's happening with full-power stations, where the LPTV would be analog on one channel and digital on another. The difference is that a LPTV station is not *guaranteed* a companion channel - some (many) will not be able to receive one. They'll have to "flash-cut" or die.

Trinity Broadcasting has been filing to "flash cut" most of their LPTVs. (I realize you don't have any TBN LPTVs in Memphis but that's an unusual situation!)

It may be worth noting that a LPTV construction permit runs for 3 years - which is roughly equal to the time until the analog "drop-dead" date. LPTVs which receive "flash-cut" permission today could potentially build the digital facility and then "sit on it" - leaving it turned off and operating analog until just before the deadline. Whether they actually plan to do so I have no idea.
 
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