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DTV Transition Mostly Smooth, Windows Media Center Problems
dritan writes "While most of the transition to digital seems to have gone smoothly, those who use Windows Media Center saw their screens go dark. Users are complaining that Media Center did not pick up changes to channel assignments that took place on Friday. Someone forgot to update the static channel lists distributed with the program guide. Users either have to wait for Microsoft to fix the problem, or manually edit the configuration files."
Reports indicate that the FCC received upwards of 300,000 calls on Friday from consumers seeking late help with the transition, but they were prepared, with over 4,000 operators available to handle problems. The FCC's DTV website also had over 3 million hits on Friday. Both phone and Internet traffic have now tapered off, and supplies of converter boxes appear to have held out just fine.
The weird part is that there are a couple of stations still broadcasting analog and normal programming
The countless number of PSAs that aired concerning the DTV transition stated that low power stations would not be affected. Are these couple of stations you speak of major network affiliates for a large metro area or a local community college station?
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
I'm not entirely sure, but it's probably similar to the issue I had setting up my Beyond TV based DVR. To record things it needs both a program guide as well as a list of channels. The program guide it uses is from Comcast, my cable provider, which is feeding the QAM tuners that feed into the DVR. As far as the guide goes, it sees the ABC digital channel as 703, which is what would show up on the cable box. The actual channel is something like 91-8, which is what the tuner finds on a channel scan. There's a portion of the DVR setup where you have to associate the channels from the guide with the actual channel numbers, or else you won't be able to record or watch anything.
Most broadcasters on VHF 7 - 13 are going to continue to broadcast on their old VHF channels, so you're just making a fool of yourself.
Also "can't receive (frequency)" is completely baseless nonsense. You COULD SAY that your antenna doesn't work well for them, but that's about it.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
A bit thin skinned?
First, Microsoft has in excess of 80 to 90% of the market, and Linux is "desktop irrelevant" at 1 to 5%. Given those figures, isn't Media Center the ONLY TV application that matters? If there is a problem, it really only affects Media Center, right?
So, it's not "Microsoft Bashing". It's simple reporting. And, on a tech oriented website, I would certainly expect some tech slanted coverage.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
That's built-in to the legislation. They can broadcast an analog signal that's nothing more than "hey where's my TV program?" for 30 days, I believe... maybe 60.
Comment of the year
Entertainingly, if those people went out and bought a new flat screen they would see bars on the sides of their new televisions when they tuned to the channels I am talking about.
If I got my way, a button that is on most remotes would be the thing in control of it.
(Looking at your link, it doesn't really support what you are saying, the guy is disappointed that it doesn't fill the screen, not paranoid, and the rest of the comments explain what is going on in a reasonable tone...)
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
That's your analog nightlight at work...
IIRC, this reason for this forced transition was to get small rural communities to switch over to DTV. I live in rural New Mexico. All our signals arrive here via repeaters.
Only one out of five stations (ABC) made the transition. NBC simply went off the air (because making the transition to digital would be too expensive). PBS is also off the air but this may be becausetheir repeater got hammered in a storm.
So right now our local station, FOX, and CBS are still broadcasting in analog while ABC is only digital. The Zenith converter box I got (because it had analog pass-through) does not pass through analog signals without loss so I have to actually replug wires to switch stations.
For my little piece of rural America, this transition was about as smooth as sandpaper toilet tissue.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Make sure you rescanned the box after yesterday. TV stations were switching from their temporary ATSC frequencies (typically UHF) to their permanent frequencies (which may or may not be the same) throughout the day on Saturday. If it doesn't fix it, check http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/ and see if the channels are still available in your area (weak signals will probably will not be received, unless you have a badass antenna)...
I had most of the channels working on both analog and digital before the change. But now, I lost them due to VHF and DB2 bowtie antenna. Both rabbit ears and bowtie separately can't get all stations like KTTV 11, etc. Funny how all transmitters are in one location but yet I have to rotate, tilt, etc. my Terk rabbit ears. I never had to do that with my DB2 antenna before the 12th. :(
People think it is my old Air2PC HDTV tuner cards (2005) due to third generation vs. the newer ones. I really don't want to have to spend money to buy new cards nor buy cable/sattelite (subscriptions suck and am not rich). I also can't put an antenna on the roof and in the attic since owners refuse and I am disabled to do it myself.
Bah.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This isn't a troll post:
I am one of MANY users affected by Microsoft's choice to release the "WMC TVPack" that fixes many of WMC's problems...but the release was ONLY SENT to OEM vendors of hardware. The OEMs ONLY included the TVPACK in new sales, leaving all Vista Premium and Ultimate users who bought or DIY built a Media Center prior to the TVPack release up a creek.
Now, MS has release yet another update to the TVPack, but there is no sane way for the above affected users to take advantage of this.
Alternatives include: going to unsupported/unsecure sites or torrents to download the TVPack, or doing arcane editing of registry & system files to try and do workarounds.
Should one download the TVPack from the non-MS sites and risk the possibility that they're corrupted, your path is:
- do a complete OS reinstall
- add TVPACK
- do all software updates
- oh, BTW, kiss your existing library of non-copy-protected off-air recordings good bye in the process.
While not the first Windows machine I've ever used, it is the first I've ever owned and I just want to thank Mr Softy for giving me the high hard one!
After the local PBS affiliate reduced their signal strength I had to make an antenna to get a signal:
http://current.org/ptv/ptv0821make.pdf
Anyone who is having reception difficulties who hasn't tried an antenna specifically designed for digital reception might want to consider it.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
No they just had a color TV system (CBS's field sequential color system - i.e. rotating color wheels) that was not compatible with BW as the standard for two years before the current NTSC was created.