[Coco] S-video, DTV on Sutro

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

Kevin Diggs wrote:
> Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> I will have to find the right time to take the pictures as the AD723 is
>> in use many hours of the day displaying DTV pictures on my RCA TV.
>>
> Can you elaborate on this? Did you build your own HDTV tuner?

I purchased the "MyHD" PCI card which is an unusual HDTV card
for a PC in that it drives the HDTV Monitor directly. I did not know that
at the time. This forces you to use only the software that comes with the
card and locks you out of the MS Media Center software.

Thus you are dependant on that one company funding the all the software
instead of MS and many other companies spreading the cost around.

Not that the MS Media software is better, you are just locked out and
this is not expected to change.

Linux may be a system where attempts are being made to support this
card with Open Source software.

My Desktop system was completely rebuilt with the Case the only
part of the old system that was kept. New Quiet PS, new motherboard
and CPU, a Huge very heavy heatsink for the CPU and four quiet drives,
two drives each in two RAID-0 arrays. 640 Gig total and 2 Gig memory.
New graphics card coming soon to free up a PCI-E slot for a second HDTV
card.

The "MyHD" PCI card requires a very fast CPU and you need a lot of storage
for HDTV programs and the Video editing that I do some of.

It is my very first system that the CPU usage has not been stuck at 100%
almost all the time. Good HTPC's are not cheap.

>> Many of the DTV San Francisco stations are off the air a lot just now so
>> I might be able to do it soon.
>>
> They went down shortly before the Orange bowl. Had to watch that on
> NTSC; now an experience that I can barely stand (and I am not talking
> about the picture detail in HDTV or any crap like that - it is the lack
> of noise and multi-path crap that is virtually impossible to avoid in
> NTSC in an urban environment). If you go to KQED's (SF PBS) web site and
> go to the HD schedule you will see a note about "the antenna for system
> b" failing. This took KGO, KQED, and K-some-station-I-don't-watch off
> the air. They are all down again today (3rd day in a row and yes they
> come back up at night ... those that still have antenna anyway). One can
> only assume that they are replacing whatever blew up today.

The other station is KMTP. I record the 4:30AM, 10:30AM and 4:30PM
showings of "In Focus". Now I have gone back to my VCR for them.

Yes, I am not watching HDTV but DTV with my RCA NTSC TV.
The lack of noise is a great improvement. HD display later.

Subscribe to "HDTV-in-SFbay"  @ yahoogroups.com

There currently is a running description of what is happening on Sutro.

>> There are a huge number of antennas on Sutro and when there is trouble
>> with one it affects several stations at once and many times all the DTV
>> stations must be shut down for worker safety. There are 11 DTV Stations
>> transmitting from the tower. I cannot find the analog count, each of
>> those has main and backup antennas.
>>
> The now retired former transmitter supervisor at KGO has a web site that
> has a PDF containing antenna locations on Sutro. His name is Ray Herring.
>
>> Lots of complaints about the possibility of missing the Rose Bowl in HD.
>>
> They managed to "get it up" during the game. 7-1 went down about 15
> minutes after it was over though. Can you do me a huge favor? Can you
> contact the station and inquire about how they managed to get their DTV
> signal up for the game? I am dieing of curiosity to know how they did
> it. Don't mention my name. They don't like me. The crack about them
> needing to remember to straighten the coat hanger they use as a
> transmission antenna (for NTSC VHF 7) may have made them mad. Another
> jab to make sure it is metal probably did not help either. If you are a
> football fan you could add a thank you for them doing whatever they did
> to get that really hyped game on the air.
>>
>> Stephen H. Fischer
>>
>
> kevin

Read the recent messages on "HDTV-in-SFbay". The complete story is already
there.

While the Silicon Valley did not get very much rain, San Francisco and north
have had a series of very wet and stormily weeks, it has been on the news.

I do not know the failure modes of TV transmitter antennas and if they are
different for Digital ones but I suspect that the rain and wind had a part.

The analog antennas may be failing just as often but we do not notice their
failure as they switch to backup antennas. There is not room left for backup
Digital antennas on Sutro until 2009.

Stephen H. Fischer