Digital Transition Day is Here
At long last, the digital TV transition will take place. Local television stations will turn off the transmitters pushing the old analog signal, making old TVs with only rabbit ears useless. Instead, stations will be using digital transmitters that require users to have digital receivers. Those with old TVs need a digital TV converter box to pick up the new standard of over-the-air signals.
Viewers with new TVs will need to rescan the TV’s channels to pick up the stations on their new frequencies. Additionally, stations will not be transmitting at full power on these new transmitters for a few months, in most cases. Be patient, and if you are having trouble tuning a station throughout the summer, don’t forget to rescan the channels to accommodate the transitioning TV spectrum. Most stations plan to have their new transmitters up to full power by the summer’s end.
Cable subscribers will not need to do anything unless they view local HD channels through an antenna. For subscribers viewing local HD channels without an antenna, but on 5.1, 11.1, etc, no action will be needed. Also, this transition is not to be confused with Time Warner Cable’s own conversion of their signal to “digital” (QAM256). That conversion actually has to do with freeing up space for more HD channels and is not scheduled to happen soon.
In the meantime, you can follow WRAL’s instructions or just watch for important information in this video:
DVR Alert: Bull Durham
Back in the fall of 1987 movie director
Ron Shelton
was in the area filming some movie about baseball. The movie starred Kevin Costner, whose chilling “No Way Out” was just hitting theaters, and that Rocky Horror chick, Susan Sarandon.
Regardless of the big billing, the director still had a hard time coercing the public to fill the stands at the Durham Athletic Park for movie scenes. Fans were shifted from one side to the other to make the stadium look more filled from scene to scene. Little did we all know that the little ol’ movie named “ Bull Durham ” would end up being the one of the greatest sports movies of all time, ranking at #4 with ESPN.
While most of the outdoor scenes were shot in Durham, one of the best indoor scenes was at Raleigh’s Mitch’s Tavern . The bar is upstairs, and sets up the movie’s biggest geographic discontinuity, but only locals could be bothered by that!
Encore (TWC 310) is showing “Bull Durham” tomorrow (Friday) afternoon at 2:50pm. Set your DVRs and look for Mitch’s in the first third of the movie.
DVR Alert: Bring It On
Raleigh native
Peyton Reed
has moved onto Hollywood and is directing some pretty big movies these days. His most recent successes were “
The Break-Up
” (V. Vaughn/J. Aniston; $118M) and “
Yes Man
” (J. Carrey; $98M). However his first major release was in 2000 with “
Bring It On
”, the cheerleading movie starring Kirsten Dunst ($68M).
Encore (TWC Channel 310) will be showing the movie at 8pm tonight, so set those DVRs.
Flay vs. Mitchell Throwdown Airs Tonight
Recently The Pit’s pitmaster, Ed Mitchell , got a nice surprise. As he was standing in front of the crowd in the tent, a familiar face in food was behind him hushing the crowd. Mitchell had been duped into a Bobby Flay Throwdown . The event will appear during Food Network’s “BBQ feature week as “Tales From The Pit” tonight at 8:30 (TWC 60, 278). The episode will re-air at 3:30am and on June 6 at 4:30pm.
Today Show Notes Raleigh “Rebound”
The Today Show did a feature on cities that are rebounding from the real estate crisis. Raleigh came in at #2 on the list with its concentration of good universities, strong family atmosphere, good weather, and strong job growth.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy
“My Name Is Earl” Cancelled
NBC will not renew
hit sitcom “
My Name is Earl
” for a 5th season. The show, starring Jason Lee, also features Kinston native
Jaime Pressly
, and is co-produced and co-written by Raleigh native
Bobby Bowman
. Showhype.com
recently reported
that FOX may pick the show up, so we’ll see if Earl gets a second life (much like Scrubs did). Karma has a funny way about it (so I hear).
Time Warner Dropping HDNet
Time Warner Cable is dropping the HDNet and HDNet Movies channels from its channel lineup in all U.S. markets by the end of May. Time Warner’s P.R. director Robyn Watson said about the network,"Being in HD is not enough."
[ via ]
NBC Gives Eastern Finals “The Heisman”
The Boston Strangler might be more popular than Scott Walker, who put away the Bruins with his series-winning, sudden death goal in the waning minutes of overtime. As the team left the Boston area, the television schedule was being released, and it is an enormous slap in the face of the Carolina Hurricanes. Even though the Canes’ upcoming opponent is led by “
the Face of the NHL, Sidney Crosby
”, NBC has opted to show
none
, that’s right,
NONE
of the games in the series. Instead Versus will carry each of the games against Pittsburgh.
- Game 1 – Monday, May 18 at Pittsburgh
- Game 2 – Thursday, May 21 at Pittsburgh
- Game 3 – Saturday, May 23 at Carolina
- Game 4 – Tuesday, May 26 at Carolina
- *Game 5 – Friday, May 29 at Pittsburgh
- *Game 6 – Sunday, May 31 at Carolina
- *Game 7 – Tuesday, June 2 at Pittsburgh
* as necessary. All games are at 7:30 pm , and are carried on Versus (TWC channel 271, 65)
Smithsonian HD Coming to TWC
On May 28 Time Warner Cable will add Smithsonian HD . On that date they will also included HD Net as part of the Digital Tier (instead of being the premium HD Tier).
Game 6 Game Time Still TBD
Game time for Sunday’s Game 6 all depends on whether or not NYR finish off WAS tomorrow night. If NYR wins, NBC will "settle" for showing our game (nationally) at 2:00 pm. If WAS extends the series by winning, we will be bumped to 7:30.
End of the Road for Anoop
Congratulations are in order for Chapel Hill’s Anoop Desai who was voted off of American Idol tonight. Desai made it to the Final 7, but will leave the show as well as fellow cast-off Lil Rounds.
TWC Stirs Music Choice Channels
If you are a fan of Music Choice, you may find yourself lost in the new channel allocations from Time Warner in the past couple of days. The service carries 46 channels in all, and has revamped the line up by adding new channels MC MixTape, Hip Hop Classics, Stage & Screen, Toddler Tunes, and True Country. Gone are Bluegrass, Showcase, Show Tunes, Rock ‘En Espanol, Americana, Opera and International Love Songs. Here is the complete list:
R-Line Gets Mobile Digital TV
Yesterday Capital Broadcasting and the City of Raleigh launched the first public deployment of mobile digital TV in the nation. The service, which can be seen in on of Raleigh’s downtown circulator buses (the R-Line), delivers real-time digital television and interactive data. The city anticipates roll outs of the service to four other buses later this spring and summer, but ultimately will equip 20 buses by the end of summer 2010.
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