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WTF WCIU??


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According to the WCIU FAQ: http://www.wciu.com/about/about_faq.aspx

Their HD feed is supposedly perfect, but requires an OTA antenna. Anyone familiar with this?

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See thats just stupid. Most people with HD have HD tv's that require an HD tuner in their Cable to DTV box. Few HD Tv's come with their own internal HD tuner. So therotically yes HD WCIU is available with bunny ears but for most HD tv's they would have to go out and buy an HD tuner for a couple hundred just to get it. Thats why all the local cable and satellite providers should have WCIU HD on their lineup, they have all the others, heck even WPWR HD is there.

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QUOTE(joeynach @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 12:49 PM)
WCIU blows which is strange because all it is is a WGN broadcast on a sister station. WCIU is WGN's sister station to carry local broadcasting when the company is showing Superstation feeds, meaning national broadcasts.

 

Sorry, I usually don't correct people, but this couldn't be more wrong. WCIU is owned by Weigel Broadcasting, which is in no away affiliated with the Tribune company.

 

The reason that WCIU looked so bad last year is that they were replacing their analog broadcast plant with a brand new digital one. They were using an older backup facility for much of the year, and then had bugs to work out once they got the new equipment in.

 

Since the transition to the new plant, everything looks much better, both on analog and on digital. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you watch 26 this year.

 

QUOTE(joeynach @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 01:33 PM)
My interpretation is that If local cable companies pick up our local channels for their system over the air from the stations Transmitter on the Sears tower then we can explain why some areas are worse than others. Again I dont know how cable companies get their Local tv feed. But if thats the case then I could see why someone in Grayslake with Comcast vs me in Homewood with comcast would get two different clarities of WCIU.

 

The national dish companies (DirectTV and Dish) have local receiving stations that they use to beam all local programming up to their satellites. Comcast has either fiber feeds directly from the stations or receives them over the air, but there is only one signal being distributed across Comcast lines. If you're getting poor reception compared with another area, it's either a problem with your house or neighborhood wiring.

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QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 14, 2007 -> 01:31 PM)
Channel 26.1? Since when do channels have decimals?!

 

 

Since they went digital. The new digtal signal is really broad, as I understand it. So a station can do a full on HDTV 1080i feed on like 7.1, or They can do something that takes up less bandwidth like EDTV 480p on 7.1 and then run another channel on 7.2. So, for example, 7.1 could be the regular ABC feed and 7.2 could be a 24 hour weather channel.

 

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subchannel

 

This mostly has to do with OTA Digital TV, cable systems, if they carry the subchannel, will just put it on a diffrent numbered channel. (That is to say, that 90% of the public will never deal with Digital Subchannels as they use cable or satellite)

Edited by Linnwood
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QUOTE(Linnwood @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 02:14 AM)
Since they went digital. The new digtal signal is really broad, as I understand it. So a station can do a full on HDTV 1080i feed on like 7.1, or They can do something that takes up less bandwidth like EDTV 480p on 7.1 and then run another channel on 7.2. So, for example, 7.1 could be the regular ABC feed and 7.2 could be a 24 hour weather channel.

 

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subchannel

 

This mostly has to do with OTA Digital TV, cable systems, if they carry the subchannel, will just put it on a diffrent numbered channel. (That is to say, that 90% of the public will never deal with Digital Subchannels as they use cable or satellite)

Weird. Thanks for the info. I just see the regular channel numbers (Comcast), and I was a little disturbed to think I had to figure out how to put decimals into my remote.

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QUOTE(Phil McKrevice @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 12:16 AM)
Sorry, I usually don't correct people, but this couldn't be more wrong. WCIU is owned by Weigel Broadcasting, which is in no away affiliated with the Tribune company.

 

The reason that WCIU looked so bad last year is that they were replacing their analog broadcast plant with a brand new digital one. They were using an older backup facility for much of the year, and then had bugs to work out once they got the new equipment in.

 

Since the transition to the new plant, everything looks much better, both on analog and on digital. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you watch 26 this year.

The national dish companies (DirectTV and Dish) have local receiving stations that they use to beam all local programming up to their satellites. Comcast has either fiber feeds directly from the stations or receives them over the air, but there is only one signal being distributed across Comcast lines. If you're getting poor reception compared with another area, it's either a problem with your house or neighborhood wiring.

 

WCIU is not a sister station by ownership. What I meant was that WCIU doesn't have its own broadcast producation of sox games. It just re-brands WGN productions with WCIU logo and what not on their station. This is from wikipedia, "WCIU also carries selected telecasts of the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, and Bulls, produced by WGN-TV."

 

You also kind of proved my point about comcast customer in different areas getting different signal qualities. If comcast was receiving the WCIU feed from over the air then the signal theoretically could be of a different quality depending on where your comcast recieving station is, thus different WCIU qualities on comcast cable in different parts of chicago. However, if comcast was getting the WCIU feed from a direct fiberoptic line from the source then yeah it would have no bearing on the location of the comcast recieving station. But knowing our problems with WCIU being a subpar broadcaster of sox games I would assume they probably dont supply fiber feeds, could be wrong though its just a guess.

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QUOTE(joeynach @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 03:02 PM)
You also kind of proved my point about comcast customer in different areas getting different signal qualities. If comcast was receiving the WCIU feed from over the air then the signal theoretically could be of a different quality depending on where your comcast recieving station is, thus different WCIU qualities on comcast cable in different parts of chicago.

 

Sorry, I should have been a little more clear in what I was trying to say: Comcast only has one receiving station/one signal for the entire Chicago area. Whatever you're seeing in Schaumburg is the same signal someone in Downers Grove is seeing.

 

I'll try to find out if WCIU is a fiber feed or if it's received OTA.

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QUOTE(Phil McKrevice @ Feb 21, 2007 -> 11:34 AM)
Sorry, I should have been a little more clear in what I was trying to say: Comcast only has one receiving station/one signal for the entire Chicago area. Whatever you're seeing in Schaumburg is the same signal someone in Downers Grove is seeing.

 

I'll try to find out if WCIU is a fiber feed or if it's received OTA.

 

Great info.

 

 

Off-topic, but, how come when a local station like Channel 48 picks up an espn college basketball game, for example, it's of the crappy quality of a slow internet feed?

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QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Feb 21, 2007 -> 11:50 AM)
Great info.

Off-topic, but, how come when a local station like Channel 48 picks up an espn college basketball game, for example, it's of the crappy quality of a slow internet feed?

 

That has a lot to do with their reception equipment. They pick up most of those games from analog satellite feeds, and some of their equipment may be 25+ years old. If they haven't spent the money to maintain it (which is often the case with stations of tight budgets), you end up with a crappy picture on your Eastern Illinois vs. South Dakota State game.

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