KAZD and KYAZ HD conversion time frame? Also KFWD is gaining fringe viewers

kevin120 · Jul 3, 2012

Time Warner Cable has announced the addition of KAZD HD to:

channel 399 (Dallas metro)
channel 722 (Greenville)

Comcast has announced the addition of KYAZ HD to:

channel 616 (Houston metro)

But both channels have yet to go HD although comcast has already added the SD version to 616 in preparation for to convert to 1080i 16:9.

Anyone got an idea of when the channels will convert to HD OTA?

Also it seems that KFWD is getting additional analog carriage on Time Warner Cable in Greenville Texas as they have only carried the HD version since last year and have never carried the SD version at least probably since KFWD dropped the Telemundo affiliation in that system. Greenville Texas has a hard time getting local channels via OTA so KFWD is gaining eyeballs.

JHBrandt · Jul 5, 2012

I suspect TWC Greenville picked up the SD version of KFWD in preparation for next month's switch to MundoFox. But you've left me wondering: do TWC's cable boxes not downconvert HD channels to SD, or is it a tiered pricing thing where to get some channels you have to pay for an HD package even if all your TVs are SD?

newsmark · Jul 5, 2012

The boxes I've had WILL downconvert into letterbox format if you connect coax to your TV.

kevin120 · Jul 6, 2012

JHBrandt said:
I suspect TWC Greenville picked up the SD version of KFWD in preparation for next month's switch to MundoFox. But you've left me wondering: do TWC's cable boxes not downconvert HD channels to SD, or is it a tiered pricing thing where to get some channels you have to pay for an HD package even if all your TVs are SD?

No TWC does not have a tiered pricing for HD if you have an HD box and get the SD feed you get the HD version of the channel if carried. I think that TWC is sending the locals to Greenville from Dallas via fiber and KFWD HD was added last year when they launched SDV up there in Greenville. I wonder if they are pulling all of their HD from Dallas or just some of it because they have channels that the Dallas lineup does not mainly west coast premium channels. I actually do wonder if TWC completed a Fiber feed to dallas from greenville last year because they all of a sudden went to 98 HD channels and added the In Demand Sports Packages. All I know is that Greenville is 750MHz while Dallas metro areas are 860MHz and Greenville has a smaller lineup than us in the metro. KFWD HD is not SDV in Greenville by the way.

JHBrandt · Jul 6, 2012

kevin120 said:
JHBrandt said:

I suspect TWC Greenville picked up the SD version of KFWD in preparation for next month's switch to MundoFox. But you've left me wondering: do TWC's cable boxes not downconvert HD channels to SD, or is it a tiered pricing thing where to get some channels you have to pay for an HD package even if all your TVs are SD?

Click to expand...

No TWC does not have a tiered pricing for HD[;] if you have an HD box and get the SD feed you get the HD version of the channel if carried....

newsmark said:
The boxes I've had WILL downconvert into letterbox format if you connect coax to your TV.

I see. From the above I guess folks with only SD TVs could've gotten KFWD before, but they would've needed HD STBs, which they probably didn't have since TWC probably told them they didn't need them. And KFWD would've been "windowboxed," since KFWD pillarboxes its shows to upconvert them, and TWC's STBs letterbox HD channels to convert them back down again. Now, with an "official" SD feed everyone can watch KFWD full-screen.

kevin120 · Jul 6, 2012

JHbrandt well according to one of the higher ups Jorge Arredondo at Una Vez Mas they are planning on having 6 channels on KAZD when they go HD.

I was told they are planning on using statmux and hope to give about 10Mbits-12Mbits for KAZD HD. Mr. Arredondo did tell me that the statmux equipment has a lower end limit of 6Mbps for an HD channel so that is the lowest it can go but they are going to make it work and will be tweaking it when they launch to optimize for the best picture on KAZD HD.

He did tell me that they are likely to reduce the bitrate on some of the subchannels to give the HD channel more bandwidth so we might be seeing subchannels with 1.5Mbits video rate so they can get a good HD picture.

He also said that they are hoping to be in HD by August 10th or eariler they are shooting for the first full week in August. He also said that part of the reason for the delay was that Azteca America just last week made the HD feed available which was delayed from may 31st when it was supposed to be available to Azteca America affiliates. Mr. Arredondo also told me that they are upgrading master control right now to be able to go HD. So they are working on it.

JHBrandt · Jul 9, 2012

Sounds like they want to get to HD before MundoFox comes on the scene.

10 Mbps is a bit tight for HD, but I doubt anyone will complain if they choke down the bitrate on their three (!) infomercial channels, or even Biz TV. None of those is broadcasting fast-motion video like sports.

Let's see: we have 19.2 Mbps, minus .192 x 6 audio channels, leaving about 18 Mbps for video.

Subtracting the hoped-for 12 Mbps for the HD channel leaves 6 Mbps, or only 1.2 Mbps per SD channel. That'd suck.

Subtracting 10 Mbps for the HD channel leaves 8 Mbps. If four of those average 1.5 Mbps, that'll leave 2 Mbps for Viet face. Still not great, but probably tolerable. Nevertheless, I think their viewers would appreciate losing an infomercial channel or two.

Whether that ever becomes profitable is another matter. One would think better PQ on the HD channel would draw more viewers, making commercials more lucrative and hopefully paying for the loss of an infomercial channel, but I'm no expert on these matters.