KXII delivers 2 hd and 1 sd channel at same time.

[osu1991]

http://www.hdtvok.com/2006/11/29/k/#more-3139

I can't find the link to the original story but KXII in the Ada, OK/ Sherman TX dma is now providing 2 hd streams and 1 sd stream in space and bandwidth of 1 regular digital channel allotment. They have provided CBS HD on 12.1 since their conversion to digital then added upn now mynetwork subchannel to 12.2. Just last summer they added Fox to 12.3 since this dma does not have a fox affiliate. This last weekend they switched to some new equipment from Harmonics that now allows them to broadcast 2 HD channels and 1 SD channel at the same time. Surprisingly the picture on the 3 channels looked really good while I was visiting my mother at our other house. There were no breakups on either of the hd feeds during the football games and sd didn't look any worse than it did before.

Edit found the original press release
http://www.harmonicinc.com/ah_press_release_text.cfm?ID=646

 

[kb7oeb]

This might even be good news for stations that just multicast SD. My local PBS has one HD and one SD and the HD picture looks bit starved.

 

[jegrant]

This may be the future for those DMAs that don't have enough (full-market) signals to carry all the desired networks.

 

[Barry Erick]

Well, there is only 19meg of data available and to fit stuff into that, you have to either cut bandwidth of each, OR do HD LITE, which some refer to as SD widescreen, as it is nothing more than that. You can't do 2 HD's at full bandwidth in one digital broadcast channel. Period.

 

[osu1991]

Well, there is only 19meg of data available and to fit stuff into that, you have to either cut bandwidth of each, OR do HD LITE, which some refer to as SD widescreen, as it is nothing more than that. You can't do 2 HD's at full bandwidth in one digital broadcast channel. Period.

Never said they were all full bandwidth. Read the article from hamonics. I have been in this business for a long time and am usually the first to complain about picture quality. Yet I watched both the CBS and Fox NFL games broadcast at the same time on 12.1 and 12.3 this weekend and they both were as sharp and clear as what I usually watch from the Tulsa stations and the Tulsa stations do an exceptional job with HD. If they can do this consistently I would love to see the Tulsa CBS station do this so we can have a CW hd feed instead of a digital subchannel of the analog station. Granted this is probably a very delicate balancing act that could easily go bad, but viewing it live I can see no complaints at the moment.

 

[Tower Guy]

Well, there is only 19meg of data available and to fit stuff into that, you have to either cut bandwidth of each, OR do HD LITE, which some refer to as SD widescreen, as it is nothing more than that. You can't do 2 HD's at full bandwidth in one digital broadcast channel. Period.

It's not quite that clear cut.

The newest encoders are more efficient than the earlier generations. They now use multipass techniques to compress the video better. Multipass uses two encoders in order to determine the motion vector and better predict the best B frame to reference to. In addition, the statistical mulitplexor uses buffering. Buffering allows for several seconds of instantaneous picture bandwidth that is more than 19 mb/s. The multiplexor also "borrows" bandwidth from a channel with little motion to give to the one with high motion.

Thanks to osu1991 for his visual reports.

 

[Barry Erick]

It's not quite that clear cut.

The newest encoders are more efficient than the earlier generations. They now use multipass techniques to compress the video better. Multipass uses two encoders in order to determine the motion vector and better predict the best B frame to reference to. In addition, the statistical mulitplexor uses buffering. Buffering allows for several seconds of instantaneous picture bandwidth that is more than 19 mb/s. The multiplexor also "borrows" bandwidth from a channel with little motion to give to the one with high motion.

Thanks to osu1991 for his visual reports.

I would love to have one of those, but what happens when both HD's are running
something with lots of action (road race with lots of dusts flying or a screen full of a fast crowd pan)? Both would want lots of action. What make is this newer generation. Our Tandbergs had the latest updates about a year ago.

 

[RuralSatGuy]

I pick up KXII 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 from 62 miles away, with a good UHF antenna and preamp.; tower is across the border in S. Okla. 12.1 (CBS-HD) is as least as good, or better, to my eyes, than CBS from Dallas HD LIL on my Vip622. FOX HD is also sharp, but for now has backed off temporarily from 16:9 to 4:3 - but still in 720p. The 12.2 (MyTv) is 480i and 4:3, but the picture looks fine to me for an SD picture.

I have a Vip622 (HDMI input), HDTV tuner card in my PC, and a Samsung DTB-H260F HD receiver feeding a Component input on my Samsung DLP. KXII 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 looks great to me on all three receivers. PC HDTV tuner is viewed on a Samsung 22-inch 16:9 5ms LCD monitor (1680x1050). KXII channels are beautiful on this setup.

The good news is that the KXII signals practically never have any breakup - as long as you get a good signal like I do. I can't say the same for E* Dallas HD LIL, where NBC and FOX (in particular) have many problems with the picture breaking up.

Sometimes, I will A/B CBS HD Dallas and KXII CBS HD. When Dallas LIL HD is breaking up, CBS at KXII is nearly always perfect. I use these comparisons to report problems to E*. I also get NBC HD and CW from another Okla. OTA station, KTEN 10.1 and 10.2. Also a more stable picture than E* Dallas NBC LIL HD. CW is morse code to me. Don't care about the channel being there.

I am not as fussy as many about picture quality, I guess. But, if you sat in my house and watched KXII on my Samsung DLP or PC LCD, I doubt you would complain about the picture quality. The station engineer explained the new setup to me, but it was way over my head. Am going to have lunch with the engineer and tour the station. Maybe I will then understand the technology better.

You'all come. Bring your own chips and drinks. Think positively. Maybe you can cram 5 pounds of candy in a 3-pound sack. And it all tastes good.