Are U-verse 1018 and 1024 actual HD channels?

[TPK]

I suspect these are not HD channels, since the U-verse DVR lets me record one HD channel and still keep watching channels 1018 and 1024...   Normally if I record one HD channel, and try to change to another HD channel, U-verse says that all HD service are in use....

Then again, the show I was watching at the time was not in HD...   But even then, when watching a non-HD program on an HD channel, U-verse normally picks that up as HD and will not allow recording on another HD channel...

I had never really watched those stations anyhow (didn't have them in HD with TWC), so I dont know what the real deal is...  I don't even know what, if anything, these channels broadcast in HD...

When will channels 18 or 24 actually carry some HD content??  Perhaps I can check back at that point and see if these are really coming through as HD or not...

[gparris]

Have you read the section of thread with Jimboy?
http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6964

[Jimboy]

This weeks current HD offerings from CW18 & My24 (4-16 to 4-22)

The CW
Monday - Everybody Hates Chris, All Of US, Girlfriends, The Game
Tuesday - Gilmore Girls
Wednesday -
Thursday - Smallville, Supernatural
Friday -
Sunday - All of Us, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game,


MyNetworkTV
Monday -
Tuesday - American Heiress
Wednesday - Normally "Saints & Sinners" but due to Bucks game it will be tape delayed in SD.
Thursday - My Thursday Movie "Ladykillers"
Friday - My Friday Movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"

So we offer real HD content via Wireless Digital TV when it's offered to us by the networks. Outside of network programming both channels are upconverted SD (just like every other station that does HD in this market).
Since I don't have first hand knowledge of AT&T's system I can't say for sure if we are on in HD or not.

[TPK]

This weeks current HD offerings from CW18 & My24 (4-16 to 4-22)

The CW
Monday - Everybody Hates Chris, All Of US, Girlfriends, The Game
Tuesday - Gilmore Girls
Wednesday -
Thursday - Smallville, Supernatural
Friday -
Sunday - All of Us, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game,


MyNetworkTV
Monday -
Tuesday - American Heiress
Wednesday - Normally "Saints & Sinners" but due to Bucks game it will be tape delayed in SD.
Thursday - My Thursday Movie "Ladykillers"
Friday - My Friday Movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"

So we offer real HD content via Wireless Digital TV when it's offered to us by the networks. Outside of network programming both channels are upconverted SD (just like every other station that does HD in this market).
Since I don't have first hand knowledge of AT&T's system I can't say for sure if we are on in HD or not.

Looks like 1018 is not in HD, at 7:20pm on Monday for "Everyone Hates Chris"....

The picture is in 4:3 format..

Right now, I am recording "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy" on StarzHD which is in widescreen HD, and at the same time I am recording "Everyone Hates Chris" on channel 1018...  I should not be able to record 2 different shows in HD at the same time...

Also, the beginning of "Everyone Hates Chris", I did see the "WVTV(TV)/DT MILWAUKEE" logo at the bottom of the screen, mentioned in your post:

http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showpost.php?p=38420&postcount=63

So I don't think that the logo identifies an HD broadcast, at least not on U-verse...

[Jimboy]

Looks like 1018 is not in HD, at 7:20pm on Monday for "Everyone Hates Chris"....

The picture is in 4:3 format..

Right now, I am recording "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy" on StarzHD which is in widescreen HD, and at the same time I am recording "Everyone Hates Chris" on channel 1018...  I should not be able to record 2 different shows in HD at the same time...

Also, the beginning of "Everyone Hates Chris", I did see the "WVTV(TV)/DT MILWAUKEE" logo at the bottom of the screen, mentioned in your post:

http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showpost.php?p=38420&postcount=63

So I don't think that the logo identifies an HD broadcast, at least not on U-verse...

Was the ID "WVTV(TV)/DT MILWAUKEE" just white letters? Or part of a green logo?

[TPK]

This is a still from the near beginning of the "Everybody Hate Chris" recording from channel 1018 with u-verse, starting at 7:00pm on Monday 4/16...  You can see the green/white logo at the bottom of the screen..

The green/white logo showed up a few seconds before the show started during the promotion for "Everyone Hates Chris", and remained for about 12 seconds or so...

You can't see it in that particular shot, but a few seconds after that screen the "The CW" watermark in white letters showed up behind that green/white logo, and then the green/white logo disappeared, and "The CW" watermark remained until the commercial break...

Does that help at all??  I can take more shots if you would like....  I can also record any show you would like me to at any time, and upload screenshots later...   Hell, I'll even give you the login information to my u-verse account and you can schedule shows to record on my system for yourself

Thank heaven for DVRs....

... Oh, and welcome to my home

[Jimboy]

This is a still from the near beginning of the "Everybody Hate Chris" recording from channel 1018 with u-verse, starting at 7:00pm on Monday 4/16...  You can see the green/white logo at the bottom of the screen..

The green/white logo showed up a few seconds before the show started during the promotion for "Everyone Hates Chris", and remained for about 12 seconds or so...

You can't see it in that particular shot, but a few seconds after that screen the "The CW" watermark in white letters showed up behind that green/white logo, and then the green/white logo disappeared, and "The CW" watermark remained until the commercial break...

Does that help at all??  I can take more shots if you would like....  I can also record any show you would like me to at any time, and upload screenshots later...   Hell, I'll even give you the login information to my u-verse account and you can schedule shows to record on my system for yourself

Thank heaven for DVRs....

... Oh, and welcome to my home

One of two things are going on here......

1). When you attempt to record two HD signals the AT&T DVR downconverts one of them to SD.
or
2). AT&T downconverts our 1080i (CW18) and 720p (My24) signals for channels 1018 & 1024.

I would tend to believe #2.

What you have taken a picture of on your tv is from our digital HD signal that is sent out as 16:9 1080i HD. It doesn't look that way at my house.

Tonight (Tuesday) Gilmore Girls will air in HD on CW18 and American Heiress (in HD) on My24. The CW network will place their CW "bug/logo" in the 4:3 safe title area on the screen. MyNetworkTV places their "bug/logo" on the far right side of the 16:9 safe title area. Chances are that the MyNetworkTV logo would get cut off (or be missing) if the image was downconverted to 4:3. Proof is in the puddin'....watch tonight on 1024. Take a screen capture as well.  

[TPK]

One of two things are going on here......

1). When you attempt to record two HD signals the AT&T DVR downconverts one of them to SD.
or
2). AT&T downconverts our 1080i (CW18) and 720p (My24) signals for channels 1018 & 1024.

I would tend to believe #2.

What you have taken a picture of on your tv is from our digital HD signal that is sent out as 16:9 1080i HD. It doesn't look that way at my house.

Tonight (Tuesday) Gilmore Girls will air in HD on CW18 and American Heiress (in HD) on My24. The CW network will place their CW "bug/logo" in the 4:3 safe title area on the screen. MyNetworkTV places their "bug/logo" on the far right side of the 16:9 safe title area. Chances are that the MyNetworkTV logo would get cut off (or be missing) if the image was downconverted to 4:3. Proof is in the puddin'....watch tonight on 1024. Take a screen capture as well.  

Uggggh

It appears that I cannot get to 1018 or 1024 in the yahoo ATT "Web remote"...  IT skips from 1012 (WISNHD) right to 1102 (DHDTR)..   Since I won't be home in time to set that up, I will be unable to make that recording...  Can I set up a recording for tomorrow???

I think I am recording American Idol in HD tonight at that time anyhow..  Even though U-verse just butchers the PQ on American Idol, which I have always thought of as one of the absolute best shows in terms of PQ available...  Last week they had lip-sync issues as well, but I digress...

Im going to bet dollars to doughnuts that 1018 and 1024 are simply "placeholders" in the AT&T U-verse service, and simply point to 18 and 24 SD channels...  But I don't know for sure what they are doing...

[Jimboy]

Uggggh

It appears that I cannot get to 1018 or 1024 in the yahoo ATT "Web remote"...  IT skips from 1012 (WISNHD) right to 1102 (DHDTR)..   Since I won't be home in time to set that up, I will be unable to make that recording...  Can I set up a recording for tomorrow???

I think I am recording American Idol in HD tonight at that time anyhow..  Even though U-verse just butchers the PQ on American Idol, which I have always thought of as one of the absolute best shows in terms of PQ available...  Last week they had lip-sync issues as well, but I digress...

Im going to bet dollars to doughnuts that 1018 and 1024 are simply "placeholders" in the AT&T U-verse service, and simply point to 18 and 24 SD channels...  But I don't know for sure what they are doing...

They can't be placeholders because the logo/ID you took a picture of only airs on the digital channel of WVTV-DT (never airs on analog 18).
Try recording 1024 for either Thursday night or Friday since both movies are to air in HD.

[TPK]

They can't be placeholders because the logo/ID you took a picture of only airs on the digital channel of WVTV-DT (never airs on analog 18).
Try recording 1024 for either Thursday night or Friday since both movies are to air in HD.

I have Ladykillers set to record tonight on u-verse channel 1024 at 7pm...  Will that work???

Last night (or was it the night before) during a bucks game I switched to 1024 and the channel was coming up all funky...  The audio was ok but the video was all green blotchy and I could tell it was a basketball game but just barely....  Im pretty sure it was just the particular channel and not the DSL line because all other channels were okay (both HD and SD channels)...  I have seen that happen before a few times since switching to u-verse (not that often really, but a few times)....  I guess sometimes their encoders go whacky...

But then when I switched to channel 24 (instead of 1024) the screen was still all green and blotchy just like it was on 1024...  That leads me to believe that 1024 is a placeholder for 24....   It would be too coincidnetal if both channels went goofy at the same time if they were indeed different channels with different encoders...

And hey, whatdayaknow, 1018 and 1024 are now showing up on the web remote...  Even though 1018 shows "no data avaialble" (for now)....

... So thank you to whomever is listening...   You know who you are!!!!

[Jimboy]

I have Ladykillers set to record tonight on u-verse channel 1024 at 7pm...  Will that work???

Last night (or was it the night before) during a bucks game I switched to 1024 and the channel was coming up all funky...  The audio was ok but the video was all green blotchy and I could tell it was a basketball game but just barely....  Im pretty sure it was just the particular channel and not the DSL line because all other channels were okay (both HD and SD channels)...  I have seen that happen before a few times since switching to u-verse (not that often really, but a few times)....  I guess sometimes their encoders go whacky...

But then when I switched to channel 24 (instead of 1024) the screen was still all green and blotchy just like it was on 1024...  That leads me to believe that 1024 is a placeholder for 24....   It would be too coincidnetal if both channels went goofy at the same time if they were indeed different channels with different encoders...

And hey, whatdayaknow, 1018 and 1024 are now showing up on the web remote...  Even though 1018 shows "no data avaialble" (for now)....

... So thank you to whomever is listening...   You know who you are!!!!

Like I said before the legal id that appears at 7pm and 8pm on the digital channels are intentionally "different" from the analog stations. Is it possible your box has different settings that can be changed per channel? Check if there are any setups that would affect how the channel is displayed. I guess another test would be to determine what legal id is shown on channel 18 (not 1018) on the uverse system. It should be basic white text. A fellow engineer here place a call to U-Verse but he is still waiting on a response.

Tonights movie (4-19) should be HD on My24. Fridays is as well.

[TPK]

Like I said before the legal id that appears at 7pm and 8pm on the digital channels are intentionally "different" from the analog stations. Is it possible your box has different settings that can be changed per channel? Check if there are any setups that would affect how the channel is displayed. I guess another test would be to determine what legal id is shown on channel 18 (not 1018) on the uverse system. It should be basic white text. A fellow engineer here place a call to U-Verse but he is still waiting on a response.

Tonights movie (4-19) should be HD on My24. Fridays is as well.

I will record 1024 as well as 24, and see what happens...

[TPK]

Well, this gets really wierd...

Im going to include a bunch of "screenshots" as it were....  So I hope the hosts of this board forgive me for the disk space and bandwidth I am about to use up....  I've resized the images in an attempt to limit the attachment sizes to under 100k each..

First, I will denote the screenshots

1024_ss_Start_LadyKillers:  Channel 1024 (hd?), beginning of LadyKillers
1024_ss_Ladykillers_2: Channel 1024  (hd?), middle of LadyKillers
0004_ss_ThirtyRock_2: Channel 4 (sd), middle of ThirtyRock
1004_ss_ThirtyRock: Channel 1004 (hd), middle of ThirtyRock
0024_ss_LadyKillers: Channel 0024 (sd), middle of LadyKillers

All these screenshots were taken within a half hour of each other, on Thursday night, between 8:30 and 9:00 pm...  Except for the "Start_LadyKillers" screenshot was taken from the beginning of the recording on 1024, which started at 7 pm...

As you can see in all of the "Ladykillers" screenshots, the My24 bug is somewhat there, and mostly off the edge of the visible screen...   On the screenshot from the beginning of the movie, both the my24 bug (a third of it anyhow) and the digital TV caption are on the screen at the same time...

By the way, is there any chance at all of taking that My24 bug and (if not getting rid of it entirely) make it more transparent??   It is very white and quite opaque and very annoying, but again, I digress...

It makes no difference if the channel is 24 or 1024, the MyHD bug is there and is half on the screen...

By the way, I could not record  channel 24 and 1024 at the same time....  When I tried to record 24 as 1024 was recording, it said something like "this program is already scheduled to be recorded"... Which, again, seems to indicate that these two are really the same exact channel...

But here is where it gets really wierd (maybe this part belongs on a new thread)...

The "Thirty Rock" broadcast on channel 4 shows part of the "HD" bug in the lower left of the screen....  

But you can see the full screen and the full bug in the lower left of the HD broadcast of "Thirty Rock" on channel 1004...

During all of this, I went into my bedroom where I have a SD TV, and tried to find the channel 24 bug on both channels 0024 and 1024 (yes, you can tune into the HD channels even if you have the box hooked up to a SD television)...  I could find no evidence of the bug at all on the TV in my bedroom, but I believe this is just because it was being overscanned off the screen...  When looking at channels 1004 and 0004 on that TV, I could just barely see the right hand side of the "D" in the nbc "HD" bug...

So what is going on here??  Is u-verse making the SD channels by taking the HD digital channels, downconverting, and chopping off the left and right hand sides of the picture???  Isn't that, like, illegal to do??  Wouldn't this screw up a lot of programming for SD viewers??   Makes me sort of glad that I never watch SD programming anymore...   Is WTMJ/NBC or WCGV okay with this setup???

Can anyone make sense of this?  because I am througouhly confused...

[Jimboy]

So what is going on here??  Is u-verse making the SD channels by taking the HD digital channels, downconverting, and chopping off the left and right hand sides of the picture???  Isn't that, like, illegal to do??  Wouldn't this screw up a lot of programming for SD viewers??   Makes me sort of glad that I never watch SD programming anymore...   Is WTMJ/NBC or WCGV okay with this setup???

Can anyone make sense of this?  because I am througouhly confused...

Yes......Probably not.........Maybe...........Can't speak for WTMJ.......You just made perfect sense of it.

[TPK]

Yes......Probably not.........Maybe...........Can't speak for WTMJ.......You just made perfect sense of it.

So, the upshot of this is that U-verse doesnt carry 18 or 24 in HD...  At least not yet....

They carry a down-converted/truncated version of the digital HD channels in SD...

Perhaps they ran out of encoders??  And 18/24 didnt get to the chairs on time when the music turned  off??

Could you imagine them doing this with NBC/CBS/ABC or even FOX???