Welcome to the WDRB-DT Web page. This page will constantly be changing as we advance the technology, and find out more about your needs. This page was last updated June 16 2009. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) How do I receive WDRB's digital station? WDRB-DT transmits on Channel 49 over the air. This is not cable channel 49. To view WDRB-DT over the air your television must be digital TV receiver. You may possibly need an antenna. Some cable companies rebroadcast WDRB-DT in both analog and digital. For example, WDRB- DT channel 41.1 can be seen on Insight Cable s channel 910 on the Louisville cable system. This signal is our High Definition (when available) station. WDRB-DT channel 41.1 is seen on Insight cable channel 9 in analog. Insight cable converts the digital signal to an analog signal. A digital TV station can transmit up to four subchannels. WDRB-DT's does not transmit any side channels yet. Some stations, like the PBS stations, transmit up to six channels. Can I get WDRB's digital station on my normal TV? No, except if you purchase a converter box. If you don't want to purchase a digital television set, you can buy a desktop converter box, or a digital computer card in your computer. A Google search for "Samsung SIRT451" will show you one of these converter boxes. The converter box is connected to an outside antenna. It receives the digital signal over the air. On the back of the box is connections for video and audio out, S-connector, DVI, and even a 15- pin VGA connection. (You can use a good quality VGA monitor, and a pair of computer speakers, and have a very adequate digital TV!) The Sam Sung SIR-T451 retails for between $220 and $300 depending if you are buying it via mail order or at a dealer. Other converters are the Samsung SIR-T150, Directv HR10-250 DTV Receiver, Hughes HR10-250 DirecTV / TiVo, JVC BR-HD50U, and the Samsung SIR-TS360 DirecTV DTV that retails for $180. What is the digital computer card? A company called Hauppauge sells a PCI card and software that goes into your computer. The card, called their WinTVD will receive over the air transmissions of digital television and allow you to view them on your computer. You can minimize the picture and tuck it up in the corner so you can continue to surf the web, or check E-mail while glancing at the program. Where can I buy a digital television? Louisville has discount stores, and full service "sales and service" stores. You can purchase digital televisions via the Internet from places such as Circuit City, Best Buy, or HH Greg.
While shopping for a TV for my wife I have had salesmen tell me, "WDRB is not high definition." "WDRB is broadcasting on channel 41.1". I even had the sales manager of one local discount house argue with me that WDRB didn't even have a digital station! I have also had salesman try to sell me a TV without a tuner. This is a "digital monitor", and not a digital TV. For a digital display device to be a television, it must have a tuner! Plasma vs LCD - The big debate. This is a debate almost explosive as your favorite football team. There are pros and cons on each. Plasma will be more expensive, but it does turn out a better picture. LCD is cheaper, and the picture is not as bright as plasma, but ask yourself. How good is good? In my case a 37" LCD 16-9 Maganvox beat all others hands down. This set cost me $960. A plasma TV looks very good, but it will not look good if sun or light is in front of the screen. This means that if you place your screen on an east wall, and the sun comes in the west windows, you may have problems. Bigger is not better. If you have a small living room, a 70" set will not look good. For myself, 37" of HD set looks good 10 feet from the set. When I get within 4 foot away, it looks bad and I find myself having to look right and left just to see all the scenes. (Similar to sitting in the front row of the Movie Theater it s a matter of preference). Carefully notice the light level emitted from a TV or monitor. Some devices produce so much light, to counteract the daytime light, that the TV may be hard to watch in a dim bedroom or den. This is especially the case with plasma displays. When you are shopping, think before buying. Make sure it will fit in your room, and it will be comfortable to view. What about the sound? What do you listen to? News shows, drama, sports? Buy your sound for the programs you view. If you only watch the WDRB News, it's silly to pay for a large sound system. It will be more than you need, and more things to dust around when cleaning your home. On the other hand, if you watch shows like American Idol, or FOX sports shows, then get 5.1 Surround Sound. Since my wife and I don't like loud sound, we found a Bose 5.1 system for our TV that allow us to listen in comfort. However, if you like the roar of the crowd, and "feel" the bump and thump of explosions and bass, then buy a system with a minimum of 300-watts with large speakers. Why is there a funny hollow sound on our DTV? Many of the digital televisions have "settings" to allow the viewer to alter the sound of the broadcast. We have received plenty of calls from viewers that say their audio is hollow, (like the sound is coming through a large pipe), and echo, and even no dialog with sound effects on the left and right. In my opinion the TV manufacturers did a disservice to the public and broadcasters by adding these options.
The settings are usually titled "enhanced", "concert", or some other cute name. If you are watching a broadcast, the only two settings you should select is stereo if you have only two speakers, or surround if you have a true surround system. Selecting surround when you have only two speakers will give you an odd hollow sound. When connecting up speakers, pay attention to polarity(the + and symbols)! If you swap the wires around, you can cancel the dialog or make the audio sound real funny. In other words, if you connect the red wire to + on one speaker, do the same on the other ones. WDRB does not modify the audio in any way, nor can we control what your set does. Audio control can only be controlled by the end user, the viewer. You mention "over the air". What does this mean? Transmissions from WDRB are made over the air, as are most television broadcasts, (excluding pay and special services). Our transmissions are picked up by cable companies, but for some reason not by satellite dishes service. WDRB has granted both Dish and Direct use of the WDRB-DT signal. If you are not getting them, it's because they made the decision not to provide it to you. Please contact them. To pick up WDRB-DT, do I need an antenna? If you are in Louisville, you may be able to get away with just a simple pair of rabbit ears antennas. In most cases you need an antenna, and several miles away from Louisville you may require an outside antenna. A UHF band antenna is all you need to pick up WDRB-DT. To pick up other stations you may need a VHF antenna. DO NOT get a booster unless you live 30 mile away from the Floyd Knobs area. While boosters will amplify the TV signal, it also amplifies noise, and other signals that interfere with DTV and analog TV signals. You may get better performance out of a decent antenna mounted above local obstructions and using good coax cable, What sort of antenna do you recommend? This is a hard question because there are so many, at different prices. Personally, I prefer a standard Yagi for UHF transmissions.. Since WDRB-DT is UHF, here are a few that I feel are a good buy. Antennacraft MX-U47 found at: http://www.solidsignal.com/manu_display.asp?line=prodpage&main_cat=03&manu=ante nnacraft (scroll down to the $34.99 antenna in the center of the page). Note: I recommend that you place a 300-ohm to 75-ohm transformer (balun) on all antenna installations at the antenna, and then use RG6 coax down to the TV. This is much better than "twin-lead", and has less loss. I DO NOT suggest installing a "booster" or antenna amplifier unless you live at least 30 miles from the Floyd Knobs area. Will this antenna system receive other digital stations?
Yes, if they broadcast on channels 15 through 51. Other stations in the area will be broadcasting in the UHF band, so you may need one of the following antennas to receive their broadcasts. Remember: There is no difference between a standard old-style TV antenna, and a "digital" TV antenna. The frequencies are the same regardless if the transmission is analog or digital. What about the cable from the antenna to the set? RG-6 coax is a round cable similar to that used by a cable-tv company or a satellite dish system. The wire comes in various colors, and you need "F" connectors on the ends of the cable. One end of the cable screws into a balun, or transformer that is connected to the antenna. The other end goes into your TV. In some cases you may wish to attach it to a splitter, and then have multiple outputs going to several televisions. You can purchase the cable in specific lengths, or it can be cut from a spool at a home improvement store such as Lowes (item #131658), or Home Depot (SKU #278491). The cable should be as short as possible between the antenna and the television set, and don't forget to install a ground block where the antenna wire enters your home. This is a precaution in case your antenna is struck by lightning. Do I need a tower? That depends. If you want the ability to see a lot of different signals from other cities, I highly suggest a tower if you have the room and can afford one. A tower is available from various TV stores. I do recommend a Rohn Model 25 tower, however. Some of the cheaper ones rust out in just a few years. Also, don't forget the rotor. Now, if you just want to watch WDRB-DT, then select MX-U47 antennas at the link above, and just aim it towards our tower in Floyd Knobs, Indiana, or North of Louisville. What about my satellite dish system? It's digital. Your digital satellite system may, or may not be able to receive DTV signals. You will have to check with your satellite provider. If the set-top box can receive DTV transmissions, you will need an outside antenna. The WDRB- DT signal can not be picked up over the satellite... yet. Is Satellite better than Over The Air?. NO! A recent claim surfaced about the quality of pictures. A salesman stated, The satellite pictures of HDTV stations are better than over the air pictures. This claim is misleading. Think about it. You send out a broadcast signal. A satellite company retransmits the signal. How can they make it better than the original signal? Must be magic. A typical high definition television station sends out an HDTV signal with an 8VSB modulation scheme. The data rate is between 12 to 18 mbps. An SDTV signal may be 3.5 to 5.5 mbps depending on programming. Smaller bit rates are used for static pictures and low resolution images.
Satellite companies compress their signals in order to pack as many channels as possible on the satellite. When they do this, any form of compression degrades the broadcast signal. If I subscribe to Cable TV won't that solve my Digital reception problems?. Yes, if you have Insight. You will need to subscribe to the HD tier and that will cost more. As for other Cable systems it is not mandatory to carry digital broadcast stations. Under F.C.C. rules, cable companies are required to carry the analog signals of significantly viewed stations in the area. However, the rules don t include digital, they don t include HD broadcasts, and they don t include sub-channels of a digital station. The problem will surface to cable subscribers when February 2009 comes around, and the analog stations disappear. Cable will have to do one of several things. 1. Start to receive the digital station in place of the analog station, and then furnish that signal. This means that the cable customer will have to buy an HDTV set, or rent a converter box from the cable company. 2. Start to receive the digital station in place of the analog station, and then convert the digital station to analog for the cable customer. This method would be great for subscribers with analog televisions, but would cheat the digital TV subscribers from having access to digital quality transmissions as well as High Definition broadcasts. The solution is for cable companies that carry analog local television stations to make channels available for HDTV and all subchannels for the public. Then when analog completely disappears, and the last subscriber discards their analog TV, they can recover the old analog spectrum. NOTE: See the F.C.C. request for comments from the public below. Your voice should be heard. Can you record WDRB-DT? Yes. The best way is to get an HD-TIVO from your cable system (this will be an extra charge too). If you convert the digital signal to an NTSC signal with the external HD tuner and then patch it into your VCR, you can record an analog signal. Most converter boxes and the Hauppauge computer card have this feature. Some of the better digital TVs have NTSC outputs for recording. Most don't. Since it is digital, there will likely be advances in technology where you will have a new generation of digital VCRs, or record direct to computer hard disc. Are you HDTV? Yes!! WDRB television transmits a 720P High Definition Television signal. The HD picture is formatted in 16:9, usually longer than tall "Technicolor" type screen. WDRB only sends out a High Definition transmission when HD programming is provided from the FOX network. Why do I see a blank area on each side of my HDTV picture? When a digital station transmits an SD picture on an HD channel, the picture will center in the screen. This is not a problem at the station. It's simply that the program WDRB is sending out is not available by the syndicator in HD. Just because you have an HDTV set does not mean that everything being provided is in true 16:9 HD.
What about the audio program? You will hear all programs as they are made available from our sources, in stereo, and surround sound. What is the transmission standard? WDRB transmits a 720P HD Signal. When we are not in FOX programming, we are upconverting standard NTSC video. This it what shows up in the 4:3 aspect ratio. What are the technical parameters you are operating at? WDRB-DT is operating on Channel 49 with 1 million watts of power, from 900 feet (center of radiation) from our tower located on Floyd Knobs, Indiana. What is the Digital Channel 41.1 coverage like compared to WDRB Channel 41 Analog? Excellent! WDRB's 4 million (ERP) transmission on Channel 41 covers much of Louisville and southern Indiana. The FCC allocated WDRB the 1million watts (ERP) to replicate the analog coverage. To view a slideshow of WDRB s HD antenna click here. What happens when the set fails to capture signal? In some TVs you will get a black or blue colored screen, which indicates no signal. If you are on the fringe, and the signal is just over the noise floor, the signal may freeze, or become pixilated as the decoder gets valid signal then looses signal. Are there any other DTV stations on in the region? Sure. Here is a list as we know them. This list is in PDF form. You need Acrobat Reader to view this file. Can I contact you? Sure, however allow a few days for a reply when you E-mail. You can contact Gary Schroder @ gschroder@fox41.com, Chief Operator, if you have a technical question. Cable Companies, and Satellite Dish Providers... we want to hear from YOU! "Rabbit ears" find new life in HDTV age - Yahoo! News An Associated Press article on the use of Rabbit Ears antennas as posted on Yahoo and a PDF copy. Note: Rabbit Ears are only good for local reception of DTV stations. For out of town station viewing, you must have outside antenna and possibly a tower to get the antenna height up.
Latest Devices Look Similar To Grandpa's An Associated Press article on outside antenna use, in PDF. The article speaks of the use of external antennas in order to receive digital TV stations. F.C.C. Seeks Comments on Cable TV DTV Viewership The Federal Communications Commission is asking for comment from the public to ensure all cable subscribers, including those with analog TV sets, can view must-carry television stations on cable systems after the transition to digital television occurs on February 17, 2009. The comments received from the public allow the F.C.C. to set legislation, or rules for the cable industry to follow. FCC Request for Comments