# DFW Fox not in HD AGAIN?



## fleadog99 (Jul 14, 2007)

for the second week in a row, the local DFW coverage starting with the FOX NFl pre-game fails to switch to the HD feed. I know FOX is in HD I have the sunday ticket and the feed is in HD. Why does my local not switch over until like the 3rd quarter. very frustrating for a lot of people.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

And not Directv's fault.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

You should be calling the local station and asking them; nothing anyone here can do about it...


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## fleadog99 (Jul 14, 2007)

here is there response:

"Hi Matt,

Sorry for the inconvenience ( I feel your pain) I have HD aswell. I have been told by our folks in Master Control is that its a technical problem because of "Sun Spots" that will interupt the HD signal. Rather than losing the entire picture from time to time without warning, they have chosen to broadcast in Analog as to make sure you don't miss any of the action. Hope this explanation helps."


I was not saying it was DTV fault, I was just wondering what to do: I did contact my local Fax channel and what they said was above. The CSR from Directv was very helpful, she tried several things and could not help and was very polite.


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## LanceTX (May 22, 2007)

All I can say is that they (KDFW) had better switch it back over by kickoff of the Cowboys game at 3:15, or their switchboard is going to melt!


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## vipersl (Oct 26, 2006)

Seems like somewhat of a bogus excuse. Last week there was no mention of the problems with the HD feed for Fox 4. Then this week they again are having issues, they have placed a news article on their website blaming the sun for their issues. 

Where was this article last week? I guess their satellites may be in a different location then that of WFAA, KTVT, and KXAS. They seem to not have any issues. KDFW has been and will always be the red headed stepchild network station in the DFW area. All the local networks have been broadcasting their local news in HD for almost a year. Even independent stations in DFW broadcast their news in HD, but KDFW seems to always be quite behind the curve, this is just one more example.

Why can't Directv allow everyone to watch the HD games through NFL Sunday Ticket in markets that are O&O? It would be nice to have my fantasy football tracker work on my local channel when I am forced to watch a game there. Being able to watch this game on my NFL Sunday Ticket would keep the sun from taking games away from me that are broadcast in HD.


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## AndyMorrison (Oct 11, 2007)

What a load of BS. They get their feed from the same place as every other Fox station. How come KDFW is the only one that claims to have problems with sunspots? And why can't they let D* lift the blackout on ST if they can't broadcast the game in HD themselves?


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## mbuser (Jul 6, 2006)

Much ado about nothing. They switched to HD long before the Cowboys game started.


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## KCCardsfan (Apr 18, 2007)

AndyMorrison said:


> What a load of BS. They get their feed from the same place as every other Fox station. How come KDFW is the only one that claims to have problems with sunspots? And why can't they let D* lift the blackout on ST if they can't broadcast the game in HD themselves?


1) Because it's not a DirecTv problem

2) Because the Networks & NFL control the blackouts, not DirecTv.


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## AndyMorrison (Oct 11, 2007)

KCCardsfan said:


> 1) Because it's not a DirecTv problem


I didn't suggest that it was. My comments were directed at KDFW not D*. KDFW is the one that's claiming that their station is affected by 'sunspots'. Strange that they only impair reception of the Fox network feed at one station in the country.



KCCardsfan said:


> 2) Because the Networks & NFL control the blackouts, not DirecTv.


Once again my comment was directed to KDFW not D*. KDFW is owned by the network. The fact that the blackouts are not applied universally across the country tells you that there is latitude for exceptions.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

I am moving this to the "Broadcast/HDTV" forum.


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## dtv4u (Oct 20, 2008)

vipersl said:


> Seems like somewhat of a bogus excuse. Last week there was no mention of the problems with the HD feed for Fox 4. Then this week they again are having issues, they have placed a news article on their website blaming the sun for their issues.
> 
> Where was this article last week? I guess their satellites may be in a different location then that of WFAA, KTVT, and KXAS. They seem to not have any issues. KDFW has been and will always be the red headed stepchild network station in the DFW area. All the local networks have been broadcasting their local news in HD for almost a year. Even independent stations in DFW broadcast their news in HD, but KDFW seems to always be quite behind the curve, this is just one more example.
> 
> Why can't Directv allow everyone to watch the HD games through NFL Sunday Ticket in markets that are O&O? It would be nice to have my fantasy football tracker work on my local channel when I am forced to watch a game there. Being able to watch this game on my NFL Sunday Ticket would keep the sun from taking games away from me that are broadcast in HD.


Actually, the problem is not "sun spots", but a "solar outage", which happens when the sun appears directly behind a particular satellite. The outage can last from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on the receive antenna and other factors. Essentially, the strong em energy from the sun overwhelms the weak signal from the satellite transponder.

And yes, it will affect some satellites and not others at any given time.

dtv4u


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

On a commercial receive station, assuming even semi up to date lnb's, and Fox Networks uplink power/sat downlink power, the satellite signal would overpower the sun noise and at worst, drop their quality readings down a few points. On my 6' dish, at the peak, on my weakest C band satellite, the outage lasted 90 seconds. On Fox's satellite, and a 10' dish, the signal never dropped below 80%. It would have to drop below 40 before it would even start pixellating. Someone at the station gave the front office some BS to cover their butt. Besides, the solar outage was two weeks ago.


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