WCMH-DT - New encoder chain is active

[NBC4ENG]

We have switched over to the new encoder chain at 11:30 this morning. All the cable companies have signed off on the switch. Keep an eye out for issues that might pop up. Some master guide table PSIP info has changed from the old system. A rescan might be necessary in some cases. Our RCA DT 100 unit had no issues, as well as the Walmart special US Digital unit. Regards.

[Guy Smiley]

I'm fairly new to HD, got our new TV in mid December. I have Time Warner, what will this new equipment do for me?

[DBX]

For Sale.......

One Accurian paper weight.

Formerly served as a very reliable set top OTA HDTV receiver. Recently rendered useless.

But seriously folks.......

I am now unable to switch from 4.1, unit is locked up.

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

DBX

[Dbailey]

I have sathd300, htl-hd and new Directv H20 and they all appear to be ok. Signal appears to be a bit more stable? Again maybe it is just my location and current weather condition. But no major problems here.

[NBC4ENG]

DBX,

The Accurian issue is popping up at all locations that have been upgraded. The only thing I could suggest is that the receiver be sent to Harmonic along with our encoder settings and let them figure out what needs to be tweaked. If you want, I can check to see if this is possible to do. The change can be as small a one bit that needs to be altered in the PSIP stream. Since this is occuring nationwide, a fix may already be in the works.

The picture quality should be vastly improved over the older system. Especially on high speed motion. In addition WXPlus has been sharpened up a bit. All users on cable and off air should notice the difference. Let me know what you think. Regards.

[DBX]

NBC4ENG

Thanks for your reply.

My STB locks-up in the following way: I can not switch from 4.1 without the picture freeze. If I try to delete 4.1 from my channel line-up, the unit locks up. After a few minutes of watching 4.1 the picture and sound blank.

If you could look into what it would take to "fix" this problem I would sincerely appreciate the help.

It figures that this would crop up just in time for the Olympics. :roll:

If this was known to be a nationwide problem prior to the deployment of the new encoders in Columbus, why hasn't the encoder manufacturer figured out what the fix is?

The more that I use HDTV the more that I learn that this system is truly NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. (Please excuse the rant, as I am annoyed by the fact that this "upgrade" has rendered my system useless.)

DBX

[Robbiee19]

NBC4ENG,

Picture look's very good. Comparing NBC4 Miday 4-1 to ABC 6-1 right now and I can tell a different's. I am using a DirecTV H20 receiver with a indoor antenna. No problems here.

[NBC4ENG]

DBX,
Sorry for the issue. All these systems were deployed the same week. We only heard of this issue two days ago. We tried to buy a receiver from Shack, however, they are no longer made. This lock up issue manifest itself in Florida at some other station back in October. You can read about this on the AVSForum.

The upshot is, the issue is being looked at for a fix.

[NBC4ENG]

DBX,

Give me a call on my cell when you can. 205-4028. I'm available any time. Thanks.

[Thombil]

The only problem I encounter is the same one that I had with the old system. I have digital audio break up. Seems to happen several times every few minutes. I think it is because I am using an Onkyo 595. I saw another post somewhere stating a problem with audio through an Onkyo for WCMH. If I run the audio through the TV speakers it’s not a problem. It is a hassle though. TWC or OTA same problem.

[vman41]

I am now unable to switch from 4.1, unit is locked up.

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

DBX

The only way I could get mine unstuck was to disconnect the antenna (and put a terminator on the coax since I'm so close), cycle the power, delete channels 4-1 and 4-2, select another channel, then reconnect the antenna.

My LG 3510a didn't have any problems with the new transmitter.

Shaun, if you still want to borrow an Accurian, I can drop mine off at the WCMH studios on Olentangy.[/list][/list]

[stevec999]

Looks like no more NBC for me. My RS reciever is locking up.

sdc

[NBC4ENG]

Don't count us out yet. I am acquiring an Accurian which I'll ship to the encoder manufacturer with our software package. Hopefully a small tweak in the setup will bring the boxes back to life. Is there an accurate guess as to how many Accurians are out there?

[oldguy]

DBX,

The Accurian issue is popping up at all locations that have been upgraded. The only thing I could suggest is that the receiver be sent to Harmonic along with our encoder settings and let them figure out what needs to be tweaked. If you want, I can check to see if this is possible to do. The change can be as small a one bit that needs to be altered in the PSIP stream. Since this is occuring nationwide, a fix may already be in the works.

The picture quality should be vastly improved over the older system. Especially on high speed motion. In addition WXPlus has been sharpened up a bit. All users on cable and off air should notice the difference. Let me know what you think. Regards.

This may be a longshot, but since we all know so little about DTV right now, I have a question:

could the problems I and others have been having with DTV 10-1 the last few days be related to your upgrade? (problems include no signal on one mfg's receiver; great signal and picture on another mfg's receiver connected to the SAME OTA antenna, but no station ID on signal meter)?

Since the PSIP seems to cause so many problems that are hard to identify, I thought I would put forth the question.

A for instance would be a known problem with the RCA DTC200 D* receiver (as well as a Samsung model) where the receiver would have a picture on UPN channels nationwide but no sound if the receiver was told the dish was connected. If the receiver was told there was no dish, then pic and sound was ok. Other mfgs receivers did not experience the problem.

[NBC4ENG]

We are working with NBC and the encoder manufacturer to fix the Accurian issue as well as the Sylvania issue. We are ordering a field engineer back to Columbus in an attempt to resolve the problems. Data is being compared with sites that are having no problems and our site. So far we have discovered one setup problem. After a change, that didn't help. There is something deep in the program that we are not seeing. We may load data from a working station into our controlling computers to see if that will fix the issue. Bear with us. We will get this stuff to work in time for the Olympics. You Accurian owners hang in there.

I may need a few of you to help me verify that things are working, or not. Regards.

[Captain_Rob]

NBC4ENG, even though I'm not effected by this last upgrade (my OTA is an LG LST-3510A), I know I speak for most when I say we appreciate your notifications, updates, dedication, and availability to the community. Unlike other stations, your updates help us to know when to expect planned outages, or when the possibility of minor glitches may exist. This helps us avoid the hassles of prematurely troubleshooting our otherwise working equipment. I hope your bosses understand how helpful you are, and how you strengthen the WCMH name in our eyes.

[NBC4ENG]

Thanks. What aggravates me the most about this project is having to step backwards for this upgrade. You would think after three years of this, that this would be a no brainer. However, when we're done, the results should speak for themselves. Regards.

[stevec999]

Mine seems to be working today. :D

[nakedeye]

Shaun it seemd to me that earl and the office were visably worse than before. did you lower the bitrate? they seemed to suffer much more blocking than before, although they seemed much smaller blocks but many more of them

[Scott]

Shaun it seemd to me that earl and the office were visably worse than before. did you lower the bitrate? they seemed to suffer much more blocking than before, although they seemed much smaller blocks but many more of them

I was thinking the same thing. The picture was much softer and the blocking was really bad during the slightest movement. I'm going to put a screen grab up later of The Office. Also, Four Kings (yes, I watch it), the contrast was really high. Coupled with the soft picture, it completely washed out any flesh-tones from the low-light scenes.

Added grab. It's only at 480i, but you can still see the blocking:

[NBC4ENG]

We are on the old encoder system until further notice. On the new encoder chain, we have a few problems with the Accurians and the DVR units on Insight not rewinding or fast forwarding. A few Sylvania sets don't have audio. We have an engineer coming in today in an effort to resolve the issues. Everything appears OK on the stream but these items still do not work.

I have acquired an Accurian to test here at the station. Hopefully we can resolve this problem this weekend.

[NBC4ENG]

Hot Damn!!!!:) We found the error in the program! All Accurians should work now. Motorola DVRs should fast forward and rewind now. LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS. 205-4028

[Scott]

NIICE! Thanks for the update Shaun!

[Robbiee19]

Man its nice to have someone like Shaun! So I take it that the new encoder chain is back active?

[NBC4ENG]

The new encoding system was put on line halfway through the hockey game yesterday. The original system is in standby and can be used as a backup if needed. This project was a must do before the Olympics. I hope you'll like the look.

For those of you who were seeing dropouts during the hockey game yesterday, that was me switching in and out of both systems for the testing phase. Regards.

[Scott]

Stickied this and edited title for search index.

[NBC4ENG]

We have added a device to adjust for network audio/video delay issues. Would you take a close listen and see if there is excessive lip flap on the HD stream? I've added 10ms of delay to the video path to correct this as best as my eyes can see. It is a very fine tweak. If you were watching Will & Grace tonight, that was me experimenting with the delay. Sorry for the glitches. I want this right for the Olympics on Friday. Let me know what you think. It looks on to me. However, keep in mind I'm a deaf old man with thick glasses. :D

[DBX]

Mr. Strahm,

Thanks for all of your efforts and for keeping us informed about the changes taking place.

We are really looking forward to watching the Olympics in HD. :)

Sincerely,

DBX

[Scott]

Earl and Office looked great last night! Can't wait for Torino!

[musicmark]

Opening Ceremonies looked great.

As for the audio thing--I've noticed a sync problem for quite a while on NBC-4, and I'm pretty sensitive to it. It really bugs me.

Some variables I should disclaim: I watch on a Sony LCD projection with built-in HD tuner. Sony equipment likes to take away control of the real nitty gritty details for you in the interest of clean menus and 'ease of use," so I can't shut off reverse 3:2 pulldown or other image processing to allow a real A/B comparison. So the disclaimer is: I may have video lag introduced by my Sony's image processing that contributes to the sync problem.

Here's what I saw tonight watching the news after the olympics:
Audio lagging significantly behind video on WCMH-DT. On the WCMH-TV feed from DirecTV, still some audio lag, but less than on DT.

I don't know if that data has any meaning, but I'd love to do whatever I can to help fix this annoyance. It's really bad when watching Medium, because so many of the shots are close-ups, and the lips not matching the sound gets to be very distracting.

Best of luck NBC4ENG, and thanks again for haning with us.

--Mark

[NBC4ENG]

Two different program paths are used at WCMH. The network HD shows are via satellite delivery. The local upconverted programs are on another path. I have added 10ms video delay to the network feed only. I have some female viewers that can take me to within a millisecond on lip flap issues. I'm pretty sure the network feeds are dead on. This adjustment for the network was done Thursday evening in prep for the Olympics. As far as the local path goes, I do not see lip flap in any of the 4 receivers I have on site. We'll be adding two additional, different receivers, next week and I can check on them. I'll have to defer to the forum for more feedback on this issue. The Medium should be sync'd when you next view.

One more thing, if the station is doing double boxes and other special effects, such as school closings, we can compensate for the video frame sync delays that pop into the program line. We can add two to three frame audio delays automatically. Occasionally, there is more video delay that we have automatic audio compensation for. At that point some video delay is noticed.

As for your problem, has this recently started? Has this been with you last year? Regards.

[vman41]

The new encoder seemed to do a good job dealing with the snow storm at the Olympics.

[musicmark]

Sorry for the long delay---We've been busy trying to watch 8 hours of Olympics a day for the last two weeks :)

The sync has looked good on everything we've watched lately; including last night's Medium, where I had definitely noticed it before. So kudos on that!

As for the locally-sourced stuff, I can't really tell. Sometimes I think I see it, then it's gone. I'll try to be more specific about anything I notice in the future. Sometimes we're watching DirecTV's feed via the DVR, and sometimes the OTA DTV. So that's a lot of variables to account for.

On a different issue: When I'm watching a network show in HD, I listen to the digital soundtrack decoded into 5.1 surround. We set the volume for the show, but when the commercials come on they are WAY too loud. We wind up muting the whole commercial break because of it. Does everyone have this problem? The commercials are in stereo instead of surround, but that isn't the whole problem, is it? Should the network feed's volume be turned up? Or the commercials turned down? I'm sure my muting the commercials is not the optimal result for the station :)

My TV has a "steadysound" feature that's supposed to prevent overly loud commercials, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on the digital audio output.

--Mark