Heroes and Icons in SLC

[CAwasinNJ]

I know at least some of us were waiting for this, but it's an odd way to do it.

KPDR 19.5 has stopped running nothing (that was the one that had the weird badly pixelated blank slate for what seemed like forever, right?) and is now running Heroes and Icons. The odd part is that it's apparently a simulcast of KCSG Ch 8 (RF 14) from Cedar City, complete with their local drop-ins.

At least now antenna users within range can get H&I, theoretically. By that I mean that the feed froze at about 2:58AM. It had been running normally before that. I'm not sure when 19.5 got switched so maybe they're still working the kinks out of the simulcast. Assuming the feed comes alive again there's a lot of good programming on there, including all 6 of the Star Trek TV series. Yes, they even run The Animated Series.

[CAwasinNJ]

Update: KPDR 19.5 is now IDing as virtual channel 8.1 KCSG. Smirking Guy has now been leaning against the wall for over 3 hours though.

[tardiscaptain]

I was just coming onto the message board to report that 8.1 now shows up on my TV after a re-scan. It shows as KCSG (and was broadcasting). I had also noticed that two of the 19.x channels were not showing up (even when I manually tried to type them in). I'm wondering if we are going to get 8.2 over the air up here which shows AMGTV?

[CAwasinNJ]

19.3 disappeared for me a day or two after 19.5 was replaced by 8.1. Apparently KCSG 8.3 is now RTV as well (if you believe TitanTV).

[tardiscaptain]

KCGS's website lists 8.1 and 8.2 on the programing guide. But the KCGS twitter page mentions 8.3. Perhaps more is coming? RTV would be good. At least it's not the 4th or 5th showing of Escape or a few other channels that we are getting duplicates on.

We still need Decades, Buzzer (I enjoyed this one) and a weather channel (I used this quite a bit as well).

[metalgod]

I wish dish has all those channels

[dspete]

Dish has added KCSG it's on channel 37 and they added Buzzer also.

[CAwasinNJ]

Question for anyone getting KCSG from cable/satellite: Is the feed freezing a lot? Most of the times I turn on the KCSG feed on KPDR (over the air) it's just a static frozen picture with no audio. It's not the incoming OTA signal. According to my tuner there's a steady stream of data on that channel and the other 19.x subchannels but the 8.1 subchannel is just the same data over and over. This doesn't seem like a productive use of bandwidth to me but maybe I'm being too harsh.

[metalgod]

May 22, 2017 16:58:34 GMT -6 dspete said:

Dish has added KCSG it's on channel 37 and they added Buzzer also.

I see kcsg but buzzard?

[David]

CA, KCSG is channel 370 on Comcast (or Xfinity, or whatever it is now), and I've noticed some problems with the feed freezing in the past. It's not a channel that I watch very often, but I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days and report back later in the week. I'm off work for a few days during the Memorial Day holiday, which will give me plenty of opportunities to check the H & I Comcast feed for freezing. I think it must be a problem on KCSG's end with their feed. Heroes and Icons is owned by Weigel Broadcasting which is also affiliated with MeTV, and they're usually very conscientious about monitoring the network feed that goes out to their affiliates, at least with MeTV. When KCSG was still a MeTV affiliate, there were several times when the signal would freeze or go to a black screen and I'd have to switch over to KTVX 4.2. That's why I think the freezing problem is originating with KCSG and not the H & I network feed.

KCSG reminds me of KUCW when it was still KOOG-TV and located in Ogden on 16th ST: low-budget independent TV with very little paid staff and lots of automation. I may be wrong about the station, but most of the time KCSG seems to be on autopilot with no one minding the store--hence the issue with the signal freezing for hours on end.

[CAwasinNJ]

Just to keep the record complete, KPDR moved their Yootoo feed from 19.1 to 19.5 and the KCSG/H&I feed from 19.5 to 19.1 It happened a few days ago as I recall.

[tardiscaptain]

Is 19.1 still locking up on everyone else (same image over and over)?

I did notice after my last re-scan that 19.1 list as KCSG on my guide.

[David]

I checked my Xfinity (Comcast) feed of KCSG about a half dozen times over the Memorial Day weekend and again this evening, and I haven't noticed any problems with the image freezing. Maybe it's only the over the air feed that's having freezing issues?

[tardiscaptain]

Yea, I went to the KCSG website and there is no "contact us" section. I didn't know if calling them on a Sunday would help. So I sent them a message via twitter. So far no response.

[CAwasinNJ]

I have a theory, but it's really more of an educated guess. I suspect the feed to KPDR might be an internet stream. I say that because a number of times I've seen the feed running and then glitching and repeating the same data from several seconds earlier. I can't think of a way that could happen with a linear broadcast like a satellite or microwave. It would also make sense to do it that way if KCSG and KPDR were trying to get this done on the cheap. It's not a bad idea, but the connection has to be solid. Whatever they're using, solid isn't the description that comes to mind. What we're getting now is unwatchable. I'd love to give them an extra viewer, but that's just not possible at the moment.

Free suggestion to whoever is running KPDR at the moment: Put up a slate with a Coming Soon promo, get the issues fixed, then launch the station. If people stumble on this now, see a bad product and leave, you may never get them back again. They'll think that the H&I station is "that unwatchable thing" and not bother checking it even after it's fixed. That won't do anybody any good.