He bought a UHF ant, PBS here is on VHF... Sounds like the viewer call I got this morning from a woman in Oswego, about 40 miles northwest of Syracuse: our station dropped out of her channel lineup after she rescanned her TV. After exhausting other possibilities, I suggested that she double-check w...

Jeff, would it be okay if I quoted your answer in my final post with a link back to this forum thread? By all means -- information is made to be shared and used. If you would like a somewhat more authoritative first-hand reference, you might approach the folks at Evertz (www.evertz.com) for documen...

rftranstv wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 5:24 pm

I think 3.0 is going to bring some great revenue generating opportunities but stations need to start promoting it now.

Maybe I'm missing something here: why would a station promote something they aren't transmitting? We have to deal with an awful lot of confused viewers as it is...

Jeff

We often recommend antennas like these Channel Master models, since all of the stations in our area are UHF. Even if the antenna gain tends to rise with the frequency, that's not necessarily a bad thing: in a real world system, it tends to offset cable loss, which also increases with frequency. Jeff

The answer OP is looking for is literally in... the original publication of the timecode standard: ANSI C98.12-1975, which can be found in the July 1975 issue of Journal of the SMPTE. Indeed. The only thing is, not everyone has access to SMPTE documents... and someone might be forgiven for wonderin...

Master sync / timecode generators like our Evertz 5601MSC use a GPS reference, so not only is the video reference spot on for frequency, the time code is extremely stable. Nevertheless, at any given moment there will be some amount of error between the (drop frame) time code versus real time. The so...

Ouch. Networks are good for that sort of thing. They also like to run animated content when you need to check lip sync (or worse, a show like The View where everyone is talking at once and they never stay on one camera shot for more than a few milliseconds). My most recent heartstopper was with our ...

So, too, in answer to my own question, program distributors who have licenses would be within the Commission’s reach for EAS violations. Indeed: we are ultimately responsible for what goes out from our station, even if it is because of something the network does beyond our control. The most immedia...

The rule is very specific, so that response probably cemented the NAL using the "smartass policy". I'm thinking the timeline didn't help. 10/3/2018: ABC airs false tones (including time zone delay feeds). 10/4/2018: Stations complain to ABC. 10/4/2018, 7:19pm: ABC informs affiliates, "The Network h...

From a television station's perspective, we transmit (i.e., over the air) our program feeds; we also hand off ASI feeds to cable providers directly from the studio, without passing through the transmitter. I would expect that that our direct feeds would fall within the "otherwise sent" category. Jeff

The FCC just dope-slapped ABC to the tune of $395k for last October's broadcast of EAS-like tones during the Kimmel show. ABC's rather feckless response to the original inquiry was that there was a "misunderstanding that the use of the tone was permissible". I would have thought that pretty much any...

I've heard the interim transition model referred to more often as a "lighthouse", and there's a decent article that includes the notion. Unlike the analog-to-ATSC transition, it does not depend on adding any new stations to the market; instead, a handful of stations switch to ATSC 3.0 and add stream...

Our Syracuse hub had about 50% success: our station and two others received and relayed the test flawlessly. In three other markets neither LP send the test, so we had nothing to relay. The interesting thing is that in every instance, we have been receiving RWTs and relaying RMTs with no problem. Th...

This station is using an IP Link to feed their signal to the transmitter with no redundancy. The IP link was tested once earlier in the week, not retested. However corporate installed a new piece of network gear, and you guessed it. The IP stream is complete trash. The station has been publishing a...

<t>To clarify: firmware version 89-34 is a free update that is available now, and addresses issues with how time is handled. Although it is not necessary for the upcoming national test on August 7th, it will be necessary for FCC compliance starting August 12th. Stations really should be installing 8...