Desperate Housewives had a lot of breakups on the Buffalo HD channel. I'm calling Rogers tomorrow to complain. You think they'd actually test out the signal for a week or so before changing over.... and why not do it in the summer when you'll impact fewer first-run programs and not piss off your customers so much. Grrrr..

I was wondering if that was just my box...which has been acting weird for a bit now. Well, at least CTV doesn't have their black-bug, and I had somewhere else to go to watch it. I think I'll fire off a note as well. I don't mind them switching as long as the quality doesn't suffer. But then again, perhaps it was a one-time thing?

Desperate Housewives had a lot of breakups on the Buffalo HD channel.

I was recording it for my wife and noticed that. I stopped recording and set the PVR to record the Western feed. Time to start emailing Rogers.

Numb3rs lost the picture and then switched over to 4:3 with grey bars for several minutes. At first I thought it was my external drive acting up since I'm keeping an eye on that.

Is there somebody at the station that actually watches these things 24 hours a day? After a couple "tries" it finally got back to normal.

Good luck trying to phone.

E-mailing them results in a responding e-mail asking you to phone them.

Not even sure if we've been switched over to the Buffalo stations yet or not (I'm assuming so, but haven't really noticed anything that would tell me that yet), but we had problems with the HD ABC channel last night. We were watching the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and the macro-blocking and audio dropouts made the whole show unwatchable. So we switched to an SD version (on CH), and all was fine. Since this program's not actually in HD, no big deal, though I do find the image quality on the HD channel is often a little bit better.

Not sure if this problem is related to the other problems above or not.

HDABC is now WKBW in Buffalo, HDNBC is now WGRZ in Buffalo, HDCBS is now WIVB in Buffalo but HDFOX was still FOX Detroit as of last night.

I haven't checked out HDPBS to see if it is Buffalo.

Both my HDPBS channels have been up and down (90% down) for the last few days....anyone else getting this? I am downtown toronto.....

My HDABC, HDCBS and HDNBC are all Buffalo now but HDFOX is still detroit, but in the guide it lists the schedule for WUTV.....weird...

Both my HDPBS channels have been up and down (90% down) for the last few days....anyone else getting this? I am downtown toronto.....

.This is happening with PBS-HD over the air as well.

Desperate Housewives had a lot of breakups on the Buffalo HD channel. I'm calling Rogers tomorrow to complain. You think they'd actually test out the signal for a week or so before changing over.... and why not do it in the summer when you'll impact fewer first-run programs and not piss off your customers so much. Grrrr..


Yes I too noticed that and found it unwatchable. I switched over to CTVHD (!) and watched it there, though CTV was ahead by a couple of minutes so I missed a bit.
I'm wondering what will happen tonight with other HD shows I'm hoping to record.

The cable problems are the main reason why I also use OTA with my internal ATSC tuner and outside antenna.

I can pick up all the Buffalo and Toronto channels, but need Rogers for Sportsnet and TMN.

The HD OTA looks and sounds much better than Rogers HD.

I just called Rogers tech 'support' about the poor HD signals last night on ABCHD Buffalo. Guy was less than brilliant and said that unless it was actually happening while I was on the phone, there was nothing he could do.
I suggested that a note be made, by him, that there was a problem last night (and on other occasions too, though not so bad as last night) with the HD reception and that perhaps (!) Rogers might take steps to prevent this happening again. I'm not holding my breath......

I can pick up all the Buffalo and Toronto channels.....
The HD OTA looks and sounds much better than Rogers HD.


Whereabouts are you located? What sort of antenna is needed?
I'm downtown (Cabbagetown) but not sure if I would be able to access the Buffalo HD signals OTA.

Whereabouts are you located? What sort of antenna is needed?
I'm downtown (Cabbagetown) but not sure if I would be able to access the Buffalo HD signals OTA.

I'm North of Steeles, East of Bayview. I have a chimney mounted CM4228 with Winegard AP4700 pre-amp. My TV has a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner.

The HD OTA looks and sounds much better than Rogers HD.
Don't see how that's possible since they're the same signal over different a different medium. Given that Rogers does no furher compression, or changes to the originating broadcast, OTA is exactly what you'll get via cable (minus subchannels of course). It's essentially a bit-for-bit copy.

There could be sporadic problems in delivery on Rogers part, but to say that the picture and sound are 'much better' OTA than Rogers (or any other provider that does no 'changes' to the signal) is patently false.

Not bashing OTA at all here, OTA's great (the cost for sure! :), but it's definately no better than Cable or Sat (unless you like your subchannels :)

Don't see how that's possible since they're the same signal over different a different medium. Given that Rogers does no furher compression, or changes to the originating broadcast, OTA is exactly what you'll get via cable (minus subchannels of course). It's essentially a bit-for-bit copy.

There could be sporadic problems in delivery on Rogers part, but to say that the picture and sound are 'much better' OTA than Rogers (or any other provider that does no 'changes' to the signal) is patently false.

Not bashing OTA at all here, OTA's great (the cost for sure! :), but it's definately no better than Cable or Sat (unless you like your subchannels :)

The difference is compression. ATSC (OTA) uses MPEG-2 compression to get the info into a 6 MHz bandwidth. Rogers uses additional MPEG-2 compression to squeeze it into a smaller bandwidth (that's how they manage to squeeze in all the channels), while OTA (ATSC) uses 1 level of compression.

The only issue with OTA is the periodic drop-outs (on the Buffalo channels), which is why I went with Rogers.

I just called Rogers tech 'support' about the poor HD signals last night on ABCHD Buffalo. Guy was less than brilliant and said that unless it was actually happening while I was on the phone, there was nothing he could do.
I suggested that a note be made, by him, that there was a problem last night (and on other occasions too, though not so bad as last night) with the HD reception and that perhaps (!) Rogers might take steps to prevent this happening again. I'm not holding my breath......

I called too and the guy noted the issues, sent a note to confirm my complaint and said they are "working to resolve the issues" as others have already complained and offered 2 days of free service credit.....

The difference is compression. ATSC (OTA) uses MPEG-2 compression to get the info into a 6 MHz bandwidth. Rogers uses additional MPEG-2 compression to squeeze it into a smaller bandwidth (that's how they manage to squeeze in all the channels), while OTA (ATSC) uses 1 level of compression.
Totally false. Rogers DOES NOT re-compress their signals at all. There is absolutely no difference between the compression methods between Rogers and OTA. Now there are providers that do re-compress their HD, but Rogers is not one of them. Rogers gives them the same 19.2Mbps max-bandwidth that OTA gets.

Now your TV might be running additional filters and cleaning on the signal to make it look better, but the native streams will look identical, because essentially they are.

Rogers does (re)compress their SD channels, but their HD channels are left as they're received.

Totally false. Rogers DOES NOT re-compress their signals at all. There is absolutely no difference between the compression methods between Rogers and OTA. Now there are providers that do re-compress their HD, but Rogers is not one of them. Rogers gives them the same 19.2Mbps max-bandwidth that OTA gets.

Now your TV might be running additional filters and cleaning on the signal to make it look better, but the native streams will look identical, because essentially they are.

Rogers does (re)compress their SD channels, but their HD channels are left as they're received.

How do you know this??
The cable companies squeeze typically 2 HD channels into the same bandwidth. Why should Rogers be any different?

Also, if you use the component outputs, you loose some resolution -- because the STB converts the digital to analog, and then your set converts the analog back to digital. If you use the DVI outputs, this is eliminated.

The signal last night on ABC from buffalo was terrible. What ever west wing was on was not much better. :confused: