philly locals

[duckydan]

Is there any update on why CW, PHL, PBS, and NJN (as well as a few others) are nothing but snow? I called them today and said they were unaware of the problem. I am getting in the four major networks in HD with a really good picture and my other channels are great but those four I listed above are like watching it in a blizzard... even if CW's tower is having problems thats no reason for the others.

 

[ronfelder]

Is there any update on why CW, PHL, PBS, and NJN (as well as a few others) are nothing but snow? I called them today and said they were unaware of the problem. I am getting in the four major networks in HD with a really good picture and my other channels are great but those four I listed above are like watching it in a blizzard... even if CW's tower is having problems thats no reason for the others.

Haven't gotten an anwer yet but wrote last night to ceo@echostar.com to complain about the poor quality of the Philly locals.

Will keep you posted.

Ron

 

[ronfelder]

Haven't gotten an anwer yet but wrote last night to ceo@echostar.com to complain about the poor quality of the Philly locals.

Will keep you posted.

Ron

I have also written to the qualtiy control department at E*. Haven't heard from them either. Are people in other makrets having problems with their locals as we people in Philly are?

Ron

 

[duckydan]

I got a response when I called for the third time that it was a problem with how they were receiving the signal and they are working on it. I checked my dads who has D* and his channels are fine.

 

[ronfelder]

I got a response when I called for the third time that it was a problem with how they were receiving the signal and they are working on it. I checked my dads who has D* and his channels are fine.

Just got this reply from E* qc department.


Dear Mr. Felder,



Thank you for expressing your concerns and interest in DISH Network. Customer input is an important tool in our efforts to continuously improve the quality of the DISH Network service.



We have been receiving some complaints on this issue. We gathered up the emails and ran them through our engineering team. Currently WPSG and WNJS are running on low power. WNJS has stated they hope to return to full power within 30 days or so. We have not heard an ETA on WPSG. We are glad you have enjoyed your locals in the past and we hope you will once again in the future after they have completed their maintenance.



At DISH Network we appreciate the time customers take to email their audio/video quality concerns. Thank you for your patience and for being a valued customer.



EchoStar Satellite LLC

Quality Assurance Department

dishquality@echostar.com



Why doesn't your dad have the same problem with the locals on D*?

Ron

 

[psumattDE]

Ron-
And, all the locals look great on FIOS TV. Not sure where DISH is getting their signal from.

 

[ronfelder]

Ron-
And, all the locals look great on FIOS TV. Not sure where DISH is getting their signal from.

It appears the E* gets their signals for atleast channels 23 and 57 off the air. That's why they are snowy. Both channels are running at reduced power. That doesn't explain though the problem of excessive compression on the Philly locals. I've asked that question too.

Ron

 

[JohnH]

It appears the E* gets their signals for atleast channels 23 and 57 off the air. That's why they are snowy. Both channels are running at reduced power. That doesn't explain though the problem of excessive compression on the Philly locals. I've asked that question too.

Ron

Actually it does explain much of the problem. WNJS 23 is soaking up more than twice the bandwidth of any other Philly local trying to display the snow correctly.

 

[ronfelder]

Actually it does explain much of the problem. WNJS 23 is soaking up more than twice the bandwidth of any other Philly local trying to display the snow correctly.

Really? Didn't know that. Actually ch 23 is ok compression wise. It's ch 57 with all the extra compression. Atleast that is how I see it.

Ron

 

[duckydan]

I'm guessing my dad isn't having problems with D* maybe because they are getting it in a similar way as comcast? I don't know but his picture looks normal (SD as he doesn't have HD) but no snow on any locals.

 

[ronfelder]

I'm guessing my dad isn't having problems with D* maybe because they are getting it in a similar way as comcast? I don't know but his picture looks normal (SD as he doesn't have HD) but no snow on any locals.

I've been referring to SD for that's all I have presently. I suppose Comcast and D* get the signals by fiber while E* gets it by antenna. What a primitive way to get the stations.


E* said that ch 23 shoujld be back to full power within 30 days. They didn't know about ch 57. I have written to ch 57 though.
Ron

 

[duckydan]

Is it at all possible that the 4 channels affected by the problem are run off the same antenna or satellite? Also E* knew about 57 as they told me that was the only problem they were aware of when they took my information... I guess it depends on the tech/CSC person.

 

[29tunnel]

I'm glad that some of you actually got a response from Dish... I've been trying to get a response to this bad signal issue on 23 and 57 for a while now.

I work at one of the radio stations which broadcasts from the same tower as ch 57. Their main antenna has indeed blown up, and they have had alot of trouble getting it off of the top of the tower. They sent a helecopter up to pull it off, but the weight of the equipment was greater than the chopper could handle, and they dropped it back down when the felt the helecopter starting to strain under the weight! Anyway, 57 realizes that we are only a few years away from the analog shutdown, so they are weighing their options as to whether they will replace, patch up the old one to limp thru 2 more years or just keep broadcasting from the Aux as they are now. If they leave it as is for the next 2 years, expect a snowy picture for a long while. It would be nice if Dish would just downconvert the digital signal and rebroadcast that instead. As for channel 23, Dish could remap the Montclair station, seen in NYC to Philly, as it is a simulcast.

Hey, I just solved the problem for Dish in 2 minutes. Do you think they'll take me up on it?

 

[ronfelder]

I'm glad that some of you actually got a response from Dish... I've been trying to get a response to this bad signal issue on 23 and 57 for a while now.

I work at one of the radio stations which broadcasts from the same tower as ch 57. Their main antenna has indeed blown up, and they have had alot of trouble getting it off of the top of the tower. They sent a helecopter up to pull it off, but the weight of the equipment was greater than the chopper could handle, and they dropped it back down when the felt the helecopter starting to strain under the weight! Anyway, 57 realizes that we are only a few years away from the analog shutdown, so they are weighing their options as to whether they will replace, patch up the old one to limp thru 2 more years or just keep broadcasting from the Aux as they are now. If they leave it as is for the next 2 years, expect a snowy picture for a long while. It would be nice if Dish would just downconvert the digital signal and rebroadcast that instead. As for channel 23, Dish could remap the Newark station, seen in NYC to Philly, as it is a simulcast.

Hey, I just solved the problem for Dish in 2 minutes. Do you think they'll take me up on it?

Channel 23 is supposed to be up and running at full power in about a month or .Here is what's posted on ch 23's web site.

http://njn.net/television/channels/index.html#wnjsch23
Ron

 

[29tunnel]

Does anybody know where the off-air receive point is for the Philadelphia stations? Why not put it in Roxboro... they could put up rabbit ears and get a clear picture... even at reduced power.

 

[ronfelder]

Does anybody know where the off-air receive point is for the Philadelphia stations? Why not put it in Roxboro... they could put up rabbit ears and get a clear picture... even at reduced power.

Don't know but that is a good question thati'm going to ask E*.

Ron

 

[ronfelder]

weak station

I got this reply today from Dish about the poor signal quality on channels 23 and 57.

We receive these services off air in Pennsauken, NJ. We survey many locations and we have to compromise to insure we get all the stations we need. This location did provide us with an adequate site with reasonable signal collection. These two stations are still on low power and when the signal gets too low for our equipment you will see digitizing and then it will drop off. There is currently nothing we can do to improve the station’s signal without them returning to full power.



Please be patient with both EchoStar and the Station as we are working together to resolve the customer quality issues.


Here's a reply to my next question about the overly comprresed signals on these stations and the other Philly locals.

As a matter of fact your information source is right on the money. Most of the issues are two stations robbing the available bits in the stream causing an over compressed look. Degradation of signals sharing one fiber path is common when one or more services demand extra bandwidth. Snow is the ultimate pig in the stream. The robbing is not actually happening on the satellite in this case. It is happening with the fiber backhaul from my equipment in the field. We have capped (limited the bandwidth) the PBS hoping that will clean the others up a bit.



Finally a reply in regards why E* doesn't use fiber from the local stations back to them.

The local cable company is wired into the whole market. We came in later and to have fiber installed for our head end from each station will have a monthly rotating cost of $600 to $1200 monthly. The cost of the fiber, added to the cost of renting the location for our equipment, added to the cost of sending the signal via fiber back to our uplink and the additional costs of maintaining an engineer that can respond to emergencies adds up very quickly. Three of the four we need. The only place we could save cost was fiber versus off-air. In most markets off-air reception is acceptable. When we get a channel we must carry and the only way to correct quality is by fiber feed, we will then pony up the needed funds.



Hope that helps


Well we just have to wait for the two stations to fix their problems. Should it be the case someone previously mentioned that ch 57 might not want to fix the problem with the analog signal going dead in two years i don't know what will happen.


Ron

 

[duckydan]

What sucks with 57, aside from the lack of CW HD coverage, is that the Phillies games I would get to watch on Sundays will have really awful coverage.

 

[ronfelder]

What sucks with 57, aside from the lack of CW HD coverage, is that the Phillies games I would get to watch on Sundays will have really awful coverage.

Finally another reply. I'm duly imnpressed that not only am i getting replies to my e mail. The gentlemen is replying to me almost instantly.

I understand the reluctance of installing a new antenna when the digital is right around the corner. However that does not mean will not pursue the digital signal as a resolution. It mostly depends on the contract they signed with DISH. If it does not have the digital as a viable source they will have to alter the contract to allow for digital reception.



I am familiar with them and the other DBS forums. You might be interested to know we peruse them routinely to see where here are issues we need to address.



We will make it better.

 

[ronfelder]

better

I haven't gotten an answer yet, but channel 57 is back to normal on E*. Channel 23 still isn't but that is supposed to change soon.

Seems that E* was on top of this problem even though until I got my replies it didn't seem to be so.

Ron