Rockin' 4K/HDR OTA via ATSC 3 ~ Nah, Not Really In COS 14Mar26

4K/HDR Primer... It's be a minute since I updated myself, and you folks, on over-the-air and streaming video feed quality. But, my Blodgett Theater monitor is a 16yr old Panasonic plasma 1080p panel, so I am interested; we are up to speed with 4K/HDR on the Blodgett family room system and in Summit Co though. If you want 4K (UHD, Ultra HD, Ultra High Definition) and HDR (High Dynamic Range, HDR-10 or better) you most often need stream from Amazon or NetFlix (or Comcast) and pay a premium over your 1K HD (1080p) standard subscription. I do that which is about a $5/mo premium. Depending on screen size, if you sit far away from the screen (say >10ft for an 80" panel), you don't need 4K but you always will see a difference with higher dynamic range ~ higher panel brightness and blacker blacks are key to immersion in video content. These highest video resolutions and brightness ranges are basically where you wanna be for the latest content released recently... but you gotta realize that very little content is available in 4K/HDR-10... and if you mainly watch live sports expect 1K/SDR for quite a while ~ the cameras and transmission gear have been around awhile but retrofitting this infrastructure comprehensively is expensive. Where I am now is pursuit of pro-level video and audio, like you experience at great sporting and concert venues, but how? More on that later possibly.

ATSC 3... This is the new NextGen TV standard for broadcast; it's a digital broadcast specification eclipsing ATSC 1. It specifies 4K and HDR-10 for broadcast television signals in the US. Though while back-compatible now, recent legislation allows stations to shut down v1 if v3 is in the air. This will 'force' users to buy new gear (an ATSC 3 compatible tuner or TV) ultimately. Right now in CO, we have a number of stations broadcasting ATSC 3 in Denver but only NBC is delivering HDR. And, in Colo Spgs, only NBC is broadcasting the new signal, but then without HDR. 

All that said, ATSC 3 signals may also be encrypted to thwart piracy and protect content. Check carefully what you get OTA and whether it's free for you to use.

ATSC  3 Hardware... Plenty of televisions, even new stuff sold today, including the best LG & Samsung OLED panels, don't have ATSC 3 receivers in them. So if you want to receive the ATSC 3 signal on your unequipped panel, or on nearly every old panel,  you'll need to buy an ATSC 3 receiver as an external box. There are plenty of these available and they are relatively inexpensive. I happen to use HD HomeRun receivers from Silicon Dust as they 'publish' the receptions onto your local Ethernet network for use by custom-made DVRs like Plex. Their latest ATSC 3 receiver includes 4 tuners and is $200. Most folks won't find this choice, which doesn't have an HDMI 'out.' as useful. There are plenty of less expensive ATSC 3 tuners available that support HDMI.

New PEQs For Blodgett Lower Level Gear ~ EleFrugalKit Mods And Blodgett Theater Experiments 09Mar26-11Mar26

Motivation... I wanted to trial the minDSP 2x4HD in the Blodgett Theater. So, I removed it from the EleFrugalKit on the east wall and returned to the excellent (but PEQ-less) Schiit multibit DAC. I played the EleFrugalKit straight for a bit but wanted less & more.

EleFrugalKit East Wall PEQ... I listened and measured the raw 20Hz-20KHz sweep and observed it could be improved toward my desired house sound (house curve). But how with no DSP in the DAC? I returned to a prior scheme I'd used; I auto-created filters in REW and exported them to a text file. Then, in JRiver MC I invoked the 'DSP Studio' and manually added all the filters needed (JRiver MC doesn't have a 'load filters from text file' capability ~ requested the feature before). So, while I can't live measure the results in REW for this signal path, I did simulate it (lower fat red) and listen and it is much improved. These filters will not be applied when the source is switched to the Bluetooth (aptX HD) receiver but I use that much less than the JRiver MC streamer source.

Blodgett Theater Experiment With Front & Sub PEQ... I was still not satisfied with the low end clarity in the Blodgett Theater as auto-adjusted by AccuEQ from Integra controller. And that controller doesn't allow external setting of PEQ or FIR filters. And the overall sound could be flatter. So, I lashed in the miniDSP 2x4HD between the Integra controller and my amp; I also connected the sub to one of the remaining channels of the miniDSP, bypassing the Integra's sub output. This scheme will better integrate the sub with the mains but will not take advantage of Dolby's separate discrete LFE output. I began with bass & mid-bass integration of the mains to the subwoofer. I adjusted the subwoofer cutoffs and gain till satisfied. The end sub sweep is shown in red with the gold showing the mains.

Blodgett Theater 2.1 PEQ... With the subs and mains gain integrated as I liked, I moved on to building filters for the mains first, and then the sub separately. Below is the automatic PEQ (parametric equalization) filter development tasks themselves ~ I then loaded those filters/biquads (limited to 10 per channel) into my miniDSP on the L/R main channels and the sub channel. The before and after SPL sweeps on all 2.1 channels show substantial flattening/improvement.

Finally I re-swept the full 2.1 system and compared it against the original 2.1 SPL. Good improvement, dominated by flattening the response of the mains... I should probably still bring the subwoofer down some it seems.

Music Now & Possibilities... Of course I played some tunes and YT vids and re-adding DSP is worth it. I could improve it more if I had HDMI inputs directly and more filters per channel. Contemplation for another day... miniDSP has recently announced the Tide 16 which could be a further DSP boon and eliminate the Integra DHC-80.6 altogether.

My Experience With AXS, The Ticket Merchant, Today ~ Ongoing 'Enshitification' Of Online 12Mar26

AXS Fail... I have been a frequent user of AXS: a merchant, a site, an app. I buy concert tickets through the service when the venue or artist points me that way. That ends today. I hope I can still access the tickets I've already purchased for this season and which are supposedly "stored there" for me. My experience today though will have me NEVER buy from them again; I will forgo attendance, even at a favored or exclusive shows, to avoid AXS. You know me... I buy 30 concert tickets a year and 20% or so have been through AXS, so this is a big diss.

Maren Morris No More... We wanted to see Maren Morris with the CO Symphony, especially knowing the Highwaywomen would show for the concert. I was ready to pay plenty for premium reserved seats in the front rows, as I do when Kala agrees to come... no GA slag for this outing; it'd have been $100s each. I had the 'early access pre-sale' codes in hand. I logged in at just the right moment of course expecting simple "charge me too much" but "get me my ask" yet spent 75 minutes attempting to buy tickets where every aspect of access failed. I tried 5 browsers on 3 different systems/OSs; I was asked to reset my password; I completed 2FA multiple times. Experience today with AXS was a nightmare. We will not go to this show (I literally could not buy tix), obviously; and we won't go to Red Rocks or any other AXS ticketed event, ever again.

Root Cause... I really have no idea what root cause for this AXS failure was but my sense is that I was rebuffed to allow scalper friends to scoop the early access tickets for exploitation of fans laters. I know, paranoid much. Capitalism is far from perfect but it's the best system that exists. At least I have the' right' to vote with my $ to go elsewhere. There's also a chance that AXS simply suffered from a rising tide of what we call 'enshitification' of online software and services. Lots of stuff just doesn't work as well these days ~ maybe it's unmonitored AI coding run amok or maybe it's debilitating cost reductions. Whatever it is have you ever tried to get ahold of "tech or customer support" to report or discuss these failures? Contact is often deeply hidden, and if you do find a scheme, it rarely is satisfying. Disappointing state of affairs, don't get me started on deepfakes.

First Fish of '26 ~ Latest Start Date Ever But Nice CutBows 12Mar26

I finally headed down to the Ark Tailwaters to start the season; this despite the 35mph winds. It wasn't as bad as I expected with 50+° day with scattered clouds and low 70cfs flows. The spawn for the rainbows and cutbows is 'on' in full glory so the big fish are visible. I fished proximate to but not on the redds. I toted the RF Diamond Blaze 4wt sporting a new Redington Rise reel serving as the 2nd 4wt line-holder, replacing a Rise that was stollen. It was nice and the RFDB cut through the wind for me. My first fish was a nice 20" male cutbow caught on a #22 mercury midge; he was beginning to show the hook jaw but didn't yet display the rad' spawning colors he will later. Other cutbows caught, and lost, this day were also on this midge. Sure I stopped at Red Leg for a Space Force celebration.

Music Appreciation Mar26 ~ Just Two Things: "I'm With Her" Live Album & How Bandcamp Sets The Bar 07Mar26

Sing Me Alive... I bought the metalic gold double live album from "I'm With Her" upon hearing the first couple of songs, from Atlanta. The field recordings from sound engineers are completely excellent from many stops across the country in '25 ~ of course hearing the ladies live from row 4 in Denver was even more spectacular. The song from 'our' show on the drop was the cover of "Crossing Muddy Waters." The prior two studio drop LPs were great, and different of course ~ respect 1st, then expressive 2nd; hearing the songs live with "where's she gonna take this riff, or trill," is awesome as are the consistent ebullient crowds' reactions. The voices are so fine and the musicianship is sublime. Plus, you know how I am about live; this album is so good.

Bandcamp's Influence... I heard the entire album first through a Bandcamp "listening party" a couple days ago. I've attended a number of these events from various bands I "follow" and this format is making a difference. "Bandcamp Friday" may alter marketing's decisions on release dates. They've hit a breakthrough scheme where you attend, and the band and engineers attend in the chat session simultaneously.  Typically you get to hear the whole album before it's released... maybe even simultaneously to the artists (but likely not before the recording engineer).  You can interact and ask live questions of principals. As you know if you follow bandcamp.com or me that this company's form of artist support and music distribution... is the best going. Artists make more, and it seems Bandcamp is also ensuring we get more. Sure, it's a marketing scheme to sell the music ~ but seemingly an earnest one (please don't let the artists in the stream be 'bots). Streaming giants may have had their day but are incongruous with what music appreciators like most ~ paying fine artists and hearing them unadulterated.

Get the album HERE. They will be at Rockygrass in Lyons, CO on July 24th, but I'm headed to Telluride for the bluegrass fest' there, earlier.

Repairing The Long Dead Sony XBR-65X800H ~ You Can Learn Anything On YouTube 07Mar26

A long dead but decent TV was hanging at Matt's apartment since he'd replaced it with a nicer quad OLED Samsung. I toted it back to Blodgett and booted it up to a black screen and LED flashing 6X. Dive on the net and it was likely one of 3 failure modes (unfortunately somewhat common on this series and manufactured timeframe). The edge backlight LEDs fail, the communications board fails, or the power board fails. I bought replacement parts for all these fails from eBay for about $85 all tolled. I didn't want to crack it all open for debug and then need to keep waiting for parts to arrive. Git 'er dun.

Cracking the back off was the biggest hassle in the end. Tiny plastic tabs all over heck and they don't easily release (or realign to close it up either).

Success crowned my efforts as I swapped the power board first and when I fired it up the screen lit up.

I put it all back together and deployed it as a monitor for my JRiver MC Linux audio streamer so I can get band images and lyrics and the like, in the new location for the EleFrugalKit. Nice. Of course I hooked it to WiFi to get the latest firmware but then disconnected Android from reporting to Google.

Cloning the Rodfather True 3 ~ Remaking The Fine RFT3 To V2 09Nov25-06Mar26

Sad State & Happy State... The sad state is that I was ripped off of 3 "best of" Rodfather rigs last summer, directly from the rod vault atop the Crusher Too. One of those was the RFT3, my best 3 wt, along with the nice Lamson Guru II reel loaded with SA WF3F line and flouro leaders and tippet and some bugs. I've replaced the lightweight reel, as needed, with a Lamson Guru S 3+, and an extra spool ~ I loaded the spools with similar SA Mastery 3wt & 4wt lines. I fortunately sold an orphaned Guru II spool (useless to me without the reel, which is 'out of print'). The happy state is that I've built another RFT3 that I'm calling v2, but which is basically a clone of the original. It's also good news that the RFT3v2 (8' 3wt 4pc) measures equally to and casts even better than the original: ERN of 3.3, AA of 70° (fast), total weight of just 3.1 oz, and a scant swing weight of 5.5 oz making power to swing weight perfect. No one stole the rod tube or sleeve so it will be in the original tube or more likely in the rod vault for summer outings on 10 Mile or the Ark headwaters... or in the backpack for some alpine mountain lake fun.

Handle... I started as usual with the handle, which looks very close to the v1, but I optimized a bit and made it a smaller 7" with full wells.

Hardware & Build... The 8' MHX F803-4 is a fine, warranted, fast, Chinese, 8' graphite blank rolled with Japanese Toray fiber. For this v2 build I again bought a less expensive aluminum reel seat with a nice maple burl wood insert that matches the handle well. I chose very light TiChrome single foot guides for most spots, but upgraded to the keen REC Recoil spinning guide for the 1st spot, followed by one dual foot TiChrome guide. I chose to wrap the rod similar to the original with grey & blue windings spiraling around the guides & ferrules ~ this wrap pops against the matte grey MHX blank and compliments the handle & reel seat nicely.

Measuring & Casting... As mentioned in the opening, the RFT3v2 measured out great as a true 3 wt rod. With the 3+ Guru S reel loaded with SA Mastery Infinity WF3F and the 7" full wells handle, the rod balances perfectly for me. Back yard casting was dreamy and fast.