AVS Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

College Station to Houston DTV reception.

9K views 147 replies 12 participants last post by  elspankdog 
#1 ·
As there have been a few flat terrain long distance reception posts in some of the threads lately I thought I would post a request for the guys in College Station Texas to please post their reception results with regards to Houston DTV now that they have had some time to use their setup...thank you.
 
#2 ·
I'm in College Station, but I haven't given HDTV a try yet. I'm expecting my AE300 to come in next week, but can't decide which way to go with HDTV.


I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with an atic, can I get any reliable reception without a roof mount antenna? The Titan TV site says I need a gigantic roof mount.....


I'd also like to know if anyone knows Cox's plans for local HDTV over cable. It will probably be 2050 before the local channels broadcast HDTV...


Last option would be dish or directtv...but I'm not sure I can get the right angle to the satelites...and the install could be tricky..being an apartment.


Ryan
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the info, FrankV. I had pretty much given up on KBTX getting online anytime soon, last I had heard was maybe April/May and the "Faux" channel doesn't get me too excited anyway, since 480p is the best we can get out of them, although that is better than analog. That just leaves PBS with any other prospect of true local OTA HD reception and who knows when that will happen. I haven't tried calling Cox lately, last time I did they didn't know the difference between Hi-Def and Digital Cable. Cox doesn't concern me now anyway, since we are to be building a house outside their service area. What area are you located in, by the way?

Sid
 
#6 ·
Always good to hear from HD people in CS... whoop!


Some updates and answers (to the best of my knowledge):


1) You will not get Houston stations without a big rooftop antenna posted on a tall mast. (There is one other poster in the forum - I forget his name - who gets the Houston stations, but he has a bigass setup to do it.)


2) I can only pick up 2 OTA signals:


KBTX (CBS) (50; 3-1) is broadcasting and I get them with a 90 or so signal strength in far south (but still within city limits) College Station. The farther north you go, the less reliable the signal.


KAMU (PBS) (12-1) is also broadcasting in College Station. I am having problems picking them up (dropouts in my signal) - but you feasibly should have no problems if you are within B/CS. I think mine is a very random problem.


Supposedly the Fox station (KYLE) has started broadcasting at low power on channel 29 (they would be 480 and not 1080 - but still a significant step up from the regular SD). I haven't been able to receive the signal, but will try to readjust my simple satellite based antenna this weeked to do so. My guess is that I will need something bigger in order to pull it in from where I am.


Others have reported the ability to get Waco and/or Houston stations, but they generally have decent sized antennas outdoors. So, in other words, it is possible - but not without a lot of effort.


KCEN (Waco NBC) is supposedly the easiest far away station to get, but you would have to point your antenna in the opposite direction from KBTX and Houston to get it.


3) Satellite is really the only other option. (I have DirecTV - but cannot get locals; Dish has locals - but fewer HD options in my opinion.)


Cox has announced absolutely no plans for HD Cable here and I would imagine we will be low on their priority list. (However, the reality is that I've never been able to speak to anyone at COX who has any idea what the hell they are talking about after repeated attempts. "We already have digital cable" is about the most technical they can get.


If you have any other questions, feel free to post or e-mail me.


Michael
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the info. I've also been posting on TexAgs and have had some good responses.


I'm just south of Rock Prairie, so hopefully I won't have too much trouble getting the KBTX signal in Carlos.


I saw somewhere that KYLE is estimated to start broadcasting in March. Maybe it's already up. I watch a lot of Fox shows, so this would be better than the DirecTV signal I have now.


I left Cox completely in May and will never go back to their service. You're right about them not knowing anything about HD. It'll be years before they even start thinking about it.


Now if that darn HD DirecTivo would come out, I'd be in heaven. :)
 
#11 ·
I'm not too sure if my first post went through, but DTV has added "Waco-Temple-Bryan, Texas" Locals!


The news release is dated today, titled "DIRECTV Names 18 New Local Channel Markets to Launch in 2004 ". I dont have 5 post to the forum yet, so I can't add a link.


Do we think that DTV will broadcast the HD capable stations in HD?


P.
 
#12 ·
That is relatively good news. I can now get rid of Cox Cable altogether.


No, they will NOT broadcast the locals in HD (they don't do this for any market in the country). However, they did announce today (or yesterday) that in some markets, they will start broadcasting CBS and FOX in HD. Unfortunately, none of the Waco, B/CS stations are O&O stations so it does not affect us.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Now if an ABC and NBC station would show up in B/CS in HD.
Unfortunately, this will never happen. Only two future possibilities for ABC and NBC in HD...


1) Cox Cable starts passing along an HD feed and we are allowed to get the Waco station's feed. (Both of those networks have low power locals here which are simply the Waco stations with local news.)


and the one I'm really hoping will happen...


2) Since we can get waivers for ABC and NBC, DirecTV could start broadcasting the national feeds of these networks in HD to everyone that is eligible for them.


I'm not holding my breath for either of these to happen in the near future though...
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally posted by mwesson
2) Since we can get waivers for ABC and NBC, DirecTV could start broadcasting the national feeds of these networks in HD to everyone that is eligible for them.


I'm not holding my breath for either of these to happen in the near future though...
That's what I'm hoping for. The only problem is if they're O&O.


I saw a website that would show which stations are O&O, but can't find it now.


I've actually "moved", so I have Houston stations right now, so I might have a better chance than the Waco/Temple/Bryan DMA.


Found the website: http://msi.tvjobs.com/search.html


There are no O&O in Waco/Bryan, but Houston has ABC, FOX, and WB.
 
#17 ·
KYLE 28 is owned by the same co. that owns the Waco FOX channel, I believe, neither of which is O&O, and neither of which have any plans in the near term of going digital, much less HD, at least the last time I called them. The info on TitanTV is probably just for CP extensions, so I have little hope that March 1 date for going live means anything based on past experience.

As far as ABC-HD on DirecTV like the recently announced CBS-FOX deal, I would imagine we would have to apply for a waiver again, and when I moved outside of town this fall, I had to apply again and was turned down by all except NBC this time :mad: !!

Looks like I may have to "move" to Houston as well!!

Sid
 
#19 ·
Keep in mind that for TV purposes, Waco and Bryan/College Station are the same market. So KWTX (Waco) and KBTX (Bryan) historically were (and may still be, I'm not sure) owned by the same company. KCEN (Waco) operates a translator in Brazos County for coverage, and KYLE is hardly anything more than a low-powered copy of the Waco Fox affiliate.


It's crazy, and the historical reasons for keeping it this way have passed, in my opinion, but that's the way it is.
 
#20 ·
You are correct. KWTX and KBTX (CBS ch 5. Bryan but the tower is west of College Station) are owned by the same company. KCEN (NBC ch. 6 Waco) owns and rebroadcasts in low power KMAY (ch. 23 -tower is N. of Bryan). KWKT (Fox, Waco) owns KYLE (Low Power ch 28; tower is N of Bryan). KXXV (ABC, Waco) owns KRHD (Low Power ch 34; tower is N. of Bryan).


DirecTV subscribers can generally get waivers for both the NBC and ABC feeds. (Which is why I'm really hoping that D* starts showing these national feeds in HD.) However, they can't get them for CBS or FOX. CBS is no big deal because their HD signal is easy to get OTA, Fox on the other hand...


I agree wholeheartedly that the reasons for this are long gone, it would be GREAT to have the rights to Houston stations. (Which, in actuality, we are equidistant to their towers but need to have a pretty large antenna way up in the air to get.)


Michael
 
#21 ·
Yeah, must have missed this thread, getting houston isnt easy (requires 30 ft antenna and bigass antenna as mentioned earlier. Even with that setup I only get KPRC(NBC), UPN and WB what I would call reliably. The big one for me was these three since we dont have access to any of these stations OTA in College Station (well not really, I know Fox picks up some but their schedule sucks). I used to get the CBS and ABC stations but they must have dropped their power rating because I no longer get those. BTW dave, Im prob the one you talked to on texags :)
 
#25 ·
Super Bowl in HD... in College Station! Somehow I never thought I would see the day. God Bless KBTX for actually doing this.


Although about a month ago I did actually have to call to them to turn on the digital feed (which was off for some reason) prior to the CBS NFL game. Somehow I think we might be the only 3 people trying to get that feed... :)
 
#26 ·
BTW I was gonna ask KBTX directly, but does anybody else find that the commercials (specifically the local commercials) volume is way too high? On my system its a good 20 decibals louder than the actual shows I find on the HD channel, CSI: Miami was a good example last night. All the local stuff was blaringly loud. This was on a 5.1 reciever though, you may not hear it if you just using the TV speakers btu then again who just uses TV speakers if you have a HDTV ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top