I ordered a CM4228, but I think I may have made a mistake. I'm wanting to get WEAR 3 ABC, is that only VHF? I thought the only VHF signal was FOX?

Joe

wear is uhf, technicall channel 17, it should pick it up great.

Thanks Cinder, I was looking on www.antennaweb.org but now realize those are the anolog channels. Is there a web link with the channels in this area?

I found one http://www.solidsignal.com/antennas/dmamarkets.asp

do you mean the DB4? if so we've installed this in numerous attics in the fairhope/Daphne area with a lot of success. Not sure about your particular area, but they do well. Of course they're even better outside.


Cinder, Thanks...I thought it would work. Cantonment is just north of Pensacola, to the SE of Atmore. Going to try it in the attic but will go to the roof if need be. Do you know of a good pre-amp that would work with the DB4? I have cable but they do not offer WEAR and am missing some good HD, that is if WEAR has their HD in full go now. :rolleyes: Thanks again

I haven't had to use a preamp yet but the antennas direct one has good specs and i've used the winegard preamps in the past with good results.

Is anyone here fimilar with DirecTV H20 and the 5LNB? I was reading on the H20 thread and wondering if I have DTV install a 5LNB would I be able to get HD OTA Locals with that vs putting up another antenna?

Here is the tread I'm referring to.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=611172&highlight=mast

Thanks
MagnumJoe

Is anyone here fimilar with DirecTV H20 and the 5LNB? I was reading on the H20 thread and wondering if I have DTV install a 5LNB would I be able to get HD OTA Locals with that vs putting up another antenna?

Here is the tread I'm referring to.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=611172&highlight=mast

Thanks
MagnumJoe
No, it will be about a year before we get it.

You can get ota locals in HD with a antenna but you wont get them from D*. I have a H20 and it works good for ota. I doubt D* will give you a 5 lnb dish in our area because we can't get locals from them in HD yet.

OK thanks trich, my anttena (CM4228) should be delivered on Tuesday so I'll use that for now.

Has anyone asked WALA what to expect when the UPN WB merger takes place? I really hope UPN gets the new network which probably means that WB will get it.

J C

CW

Since WBPG (WB55) doesn't have any facilities for digital broadcasting (no antenna, no transmitter, no channel assignment, no application pending for a digital channel) and WJTC (UPN44) is a fully operational, full power digital station, I think it quite likely that "CW" will wind up on WJTC and not on WBPG. That's my prediction.

CW

Since WBPG (WB55) doesn't have any facilities for digital broadcasting (no antenna, no transmitter, no channel assignment, no application pending for a digital channel) and WJTC (UPN44) is a fully operational, full power digital station, I think it quite likely that "CW" will wind up on WJTC and not on WBPG. That's my prediction.

Fine with me!

Hello All,

My 4228 is scheduled to be delivered today but new developments have arisen and I’d like to get some input. Yesterday, I received notification (approval) to received both ABC and FOX via HD from D** NY feed without any additional charges. I haven’t received notification as of yet whether CBS or NBC will be approved, however I’m currently getting them in HD through Cox, and this is around additional 10.00 charge (Digital Gateway 5.95 + Receiver 3.95) per month. The bonus is I’m also get TNT, the rest of Cox’s HD channels. So this leads me to my question, is it still worth putting up an antenna and receiving OTA channels? I’ve read several posts that PQ is better OTA, but I wonder if it’s a big enough difference that I would notice.


Thank you,
MagnumJoe

I have both. The hd PQ ota and from D* is the same. I would put up the 4228 because you will always have a back-up. In bad weather you sometimes loose D* but you will still have ota as a back-up.

How do you think a Radio Shack VU-75 XR (50"Boom, 18 element) would do in an attic? I'm in zip 36619. Apparently I'm anywhere from 25-36 miles from towers based on antennaweb.org. Your help is appreciated.

How do you think a Radio Shack VU-75 XR (50"Boom, 18 element) would do in an attic? I'm in zip 36619. Apparently I'm anywhere from 25-36 miles from towers based on antennaweb.org. Your help is appreciated.

I have a Radio Shack VU-90 in my attic, but I also use a Radio Shack signal amplifier. I live in zip 36695 with the antenna pointed just a few degrees south of due east, and my signal strength is excellent for all local digitals, including WEAR and WLOX. If you have room, I'd put the largest antenna you can, which is why I went with the VU-90. I do think you'll need the signal amp to make it work - it made a big difference for me.

Fantastic news since you're close by. I checked out my attic last night and I think I've got the room for the 90 model. Which amp did you get? Thanks!
Joe

Does anyone local sell the Channel Master 7777 pre-amp? Thanks!
Joe

Has anybody experienced audio drop outs (half second duration) on 15.1 for the past few days? I have. Drops out once or twice per minute. Trying to figure out if it is my STB or audio amp or the station. All other OTA channels are OK. My signal meter is 97% and doesn't drop when the sound glitches.

15.1 Audio

I've noticed the audio dropouts on 15.1 during the past week.

I've also been getting audio and video dropouts on 15.1 recently.

Ricknau,

You get 97% singnal strength? That's awesome I just put up my antenna and its about 72%, however I did get a stronger signal until I used a splitter, but the pictures are clear. Im pretty much on top of a hill, I didnt get any stronger signal between 30 - 20 feet high, so I lowered it to 20 feet, just seems more stable. Are you using a preamp?

Yes, I use a radio shack 2 stage amp. Preamp up on the mast, second stage just inside the house. Makes huge difference for me since I have about a 100 foot cable run from top of mast to tv. And I have no splitter which, as you point out, can cut your signal power a lot. Be sure to use only RG6 cable, it has the least power drop per foot. Remember, 3db drop equals half the delivered power.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with channel 15 audio drop outs. And Butterbars, I'm seeing some video glitches too. But here's a kicker for me. I've come to find out that some satallite channels are dropping out as well, but only some. Coincidence? WPMI and some Directv channels having similar problems? Seems a stretch but it could happen I guess. How else could it only be certain channels and not others?

Problem channels:

NGC
HDNET
others I can't remember right now

Everyone that has had the problem with the audio and video dropouts should call the station and ask that it be fixed. I just called a few minutes ago and talked to one of the engineers. He was not aware of any problems , hopefully it will be corrected before the Olympics start.

WPMI # 251-602-1500

Has anybody experienced audio drop outs (half second duration) on 15.1 for the past few days? I have. Drops out once or twice per minute. Trying to figure out if it is my STB or audio amp or the station. All other OTA channels are OK. My signal meter is 97% and doesn't drop when the sound glitches.

Yes, I have experienced the problem, but thought it was with my location (it may well be). Saturday Night Live was a disaster, with dropouts and loss of audio all through the telecast.

I switched from an older Radio Shack antenna to the Channel Master 4228 to give WPMI enough signal strength to make it though the rather high threshold of my Directv HD PVR. The 4228 did improve the gain enough to give me a consistant picture on WPMI (generally between 88 and 92%), but with lots of drop outs (or so I thought, or who really knows???!!!???).

Do you also use a pre-amp with your setup? Which one if you do?
Joe

I too have had the dropouts on 15 as well. Looking back in my HD programming, it seems to have started between last Sunday and Thursday as both My Name is Earl and The Office were a mess. Same with SNL on Saturday (Although a week ago was fine).

I live in Pensacola near UWF and my signal with a Radio Shack rooftop VU-90 XR is about 94.

Has anybody with an amplifier had any luck eliminating the dropouts?

As suggested, I called and spoke to an engineer at 15. He indicated that they were indeed working on the problem right now. There was no indication as to what the problem might be or if there is a fix in the future, but at least they are on the ball.

I do not use a preamp, but may considering getting one. I have a Radio Shack 10db unit that does not seem to have any effect whatsoever when I enable it, although I have used the same preamp in the past for analog purposes with no problem.

My problem, I think, is multipath and not signal strengh. Although all the stations are in substantially the same direction, and pretty close to me in Spanish Fort, I am down in a valley and surrounded by tall pine trees. Before I ever had an HDTV and was connected to Mediacom cable, I wanted to use my Radio Shack antenna as a back up for cable. Although VHF stations came in just fine, all the UHF's had horrible ghosting which intensified during rainstorms. I grew up in Montgomery which had many UHF stations dating back into the 50's and 60's and I was familiar with this issue.

When I hooked up my first HD receiver from Directv this October, I was amazed that the local digital stations came though so well, and with no ghosting at all!!! I had very little drop out on any of the UHF's and very consistent reception with my old, directional, VHF-UHF antenna with no pre-amp.

But when I switched to the Directv HD PVR, I lost WPMI. I don't care what anyone says, the HR10-250 is not nearly as sensitive as the HD stand alone receiver. WPMI came through the Radio Shack antenna with good, clean consistent results, but with the HR10-250, I got no signal at all!!

The Channel Master 4228 did push WPMI through, but I have been getting drop outs on several of the stations, WPMI being the worst, and I suspect that although the Channel Master 4228 has greater gain, it's much less resistant to the multipath created by all those damn pine trees!

Comcast in Panama City has added Universal HD. It's on channel 242 and listed in the guide as NBCU. As of this morning the schedule for it is not up.

A quick update on my experiences. RadioShack vu90 in the attic with a channelmaster 7777 preamp is getting me >95% on all digital channels. I'm in area code 36619. The radioshack preamp made things worse on my setup. This is through the built in tuner on a Sony LCD TV. Hooking up the HD Tivo this weekend.

Universal HD on Comcast in Mobile too!

I was cruising up at the high end of my Cox HD box here in Pensacola and found something very surprising. WKGR (Channel 5) CBS, was now appearing in HD. Well praise the Lord and pass the remote. I never thought I would live to see the day.

OK, so the score here in Pensacola area is 4 down (PBS. NBC, CBS, UPN), two to go (Fox, ABC). I hadn't heard anything about this happening. Anybody have anything of the back story? Not that I'm complaining or anything.

I posted this question under hardware but I figured I'd post it here locally too. Is there any disadvantages of using a CM7777 instead of a CM7775 preamp with a CM4228 antenna? Solidsignal has the CM7775 on backorder. I have another source to get a CM7775 but if any of the locals went to VHF I'd have a preamp already. On the other hand my guess would be D** would have locals in HD if that happen.

Thanks
Joe

Joe,

WTVY Dothan has already told me they will use Channel 4 as their DTV channel and shut down DTV channel 36 when the time come to switch off all analog stations. Because of that plan, they won't increase their signal strenght up to full power for the current Channel 36. Plan for the future.

Rick,

What stations do you get with OTA?

I live in Daphne, and after several tries, I've finally found an antenna that works. However, when I tune into channel 042-02, I get audio and no picture. My signal strength is around 88 or 89. Any ideas? By the way, I'm using the Terk slim line outdoor antenna.

I was cruising up at the high end of my Cox HD box here in Pensacola and found something very surprising. WKGR (Channel 5) CBS, was now appearing in HD. Well praise the Lord and pass the remote. I never thought I would live to see the day.

OK, so the score here in Pensacola area is 4 down (PBS. NBC, CBS, UPN), two to go (Fox, ABC). I hadn't heard anything about this happening. Anybody have anything of the back story? Not that I'm complaining or anything.

WKRG has been on Cox HD since 13 Jan. There were some messages posted in this thread when it happened. I'm glad you found it....

Someone also posted that the owners of WEAR are refusing to allow Cox to carry the HD signal until Cox and every cable company that carries their owned stations will pay for the broadcast. Here's the link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6943499&&#post6943499

I also found the thing about paying money out on the internet when googleing Sinclair and Cox.


Steve

Joe,

I'm about a mile from the mall in Ft Walton. Get WPMI-NBC, WJTG-UPN, WEAR-ABC, WRSE-PBS just great. Get WKRG-CBS most of the time, but can have some drop-outs and complete loss of signals at times. Can't get FOX or WTVY-CBS.

No signal on 10-1 WALA. Idol is in 33 mins,


ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

Hope this isnt just me????

Speaking of WALA - Anyone heard any changes on that front? Last I heard, they were on hold for any fixes/changes until the changeover in ownership completes? Is that still in process?? WALA is the last hold-out for the major HD feeds on Comcast Mobile (WJTC still not on either).

Speaking of WALA - Anyone heard any changes on that front? Last I heard, they were on hold for any fixes/changes until the changeover in ownership completes? Is that still in process?? WALA is the last hold-out for the major HD feeds on Comcast Mobile (WJTC still not on either).

Spoke with Mr. Fields a couple of weeks ago and he said that they are still on track for some equipment upgrade and moving the "master control" back to Mobile in March.

WB-55 or 10-2 will remain OFF until that happens and they are able to broadcast a good quality signal on both channels.

Asked about the new CW Network and he said that at this point they aren't sure if they even want it.

Asked Tim Reid the same question and here's his reply.

Mr. West,

We think we have a pretty good shot at getting the CW, three of our other markets
have deals already. WBPG has applied for a digital channel on 25 but at an extremely
low power level of 64.47kw. That would only cover their city of license which is Gulf
Shores. The powers that be said they won't officially announce the full station line-up
until the first of June so we're just waiting to see. All we would have to do is re-tune
a satellite receiver. Thanks for the inquiry.

Regards,

Tim Reid
Director of Engineering
____________________
WPMI-TV/DT NBC 15, 15.1, 15.2
NBC 15 Weather Plus+
WJTC-TV/DT UPN 44, 44.1
661 Azalea Road
Mobile, AL 36609
251-602-1500 Main
251-602-1547 Fax
TimReid@ClearChannel.com

Hello Fellow Panhandlians!

I'm over here in Niceville, FL (Above Destin for those who don't know!)

I am getting my Sony KD-34XBR960N in a few days! Should arrive by truck!

Anyway - Im excited about getting some free HDTV stations. I have a few questions before I choose my path!

1) Is it worth buying a nice antennae/setting it up and getting SOME HD stations in your area. Or is it better to just got ahead and buy the tuner card from cox ($2 a month. $30 to set up)?

2) If I do choose the antenna route (which i will proboly do, because I am here afterall), what antenna is the BEST for this area for a decent price? Are some better in different areas?

3) Which direction should I point the antenna? Towards the tower? Where do I find out where the tower is at?

Thankyou for taking your time to read this!

Best Regards!

I am getting blips as I call them every few minutes of an OTA HD program where the pictute pixelates and sound drops out for like 2 or 3 secs. Anyone else or is my Tivo Broken?

Anyone get these this often with a diff HD tuner?

I am getting blips as I call them every few minutes of an OTA HD program where the pictute pixelates and sound drops out for like 2 or 3 secs. Anyone else or is my Tivo Broken?

Anyone get these this often with a diff HD tuner?

You are not alone. I also have the HR10-250 Tivo, and formerly used the Directv HD box. I experience this problem, albeit infrequently. I do not think the sensitivity threshold for the HR10-250 is as low as it could be, and I don't know why. I had to get a more sensitive antenna to push more signal through to even view a couple of the stations that were received more reliably with the standard HD box.

After correcting that problem, I still get what I call dropouts occasionally. I believe this is due to the fact that my house is surrounded by tall pine trees and I am down in a valley although close to the transmitters for the stations over here in Baldwin county. I think this problem is caused by multipath-- i.i.e.. reflected signals.

Your problem also be multipath, or fading signal, or even possibly a technical problem with the station. I doubt your HR10-250 is defective.

I am getting blips as I call them every few minutes of an OTA HD program where the pictute pixelates and sound drops out for like 2 or 3 secs. Anyone else or is my Tivo Broken?

Anyone get these this often with a diff HD tuner?

What do you use for a Dolby Receiver?
I use the Bose surround system and have the HR10 set for a 30 second skip and when I jump through commercials sometimes the Bose has a problem gretting a good "lock" on the digital signal on some stations.
When this happens I use the fast foreward.

J C

P. S. When I use the standard audio Red & White get so skips at all.

Athanas2221

I live in Crestview and I'm pretty sure Crestview is the highest point in Florida which must benefit me since my antenna is only 20 feet high. I use both D** and OTA using a Channel Master 4228 with a Channel Master 7777 and I get ABC,CBS,NBC,WGN,PBS, and a couple of other channels. The only channel I can't get is FOX, however with D** I get distant locals out of NY (ABC, CBS, and FOX) all granted a waiver. I setup the OTA just because I enjoy doing this kind of thing, your average person probably wouldn't go through the experience. I point my antenna west and slightly south. My signal strength is pegged accept for CBS (WKRG) and it’s @ 65 percent. I’m sure if I turned the antenna towards Dothan (WTVY) I would get a stronger signal. The preamp really helped, before I bought it my signal strength was around 75% and at that time I couldn’t get WKRG. I tried COX and I compared it with both D** and OTA and to my eyes COX just wasn’t as clear.

Question for Mobile comcast HD cable users: I have comcast digital with a cable card and OTA antenna. (My tv offers both) I like the set up but all I watch is some analog cable channels and any HD channels. I want to get HBO ( I like the Sopranos) But my bill will be close to $90.00/month. Too much! So I went down to the office and asked if I could just get analog cable with the HD package and HBO. She said yes but HBO will be on analog channel 15-not HD. I said fine (just for one show) She also said-this is important-that I will still get all my HD channels:172,173,174,175,180,181,182,190(sometimes,Braves),1 91,194. That is the selling point for me for I don't watch any digital channels and I will save almost $20/month.
Does anyone else have this set up and is this correct? They are coming Tuesday.

I use both D** and OTA using a Channel Master 4228... My signal strength is pegged accept for CBS (WKRG) and it’s @ 65 percent.

Joe, the 4228 has an average gain across the UHF band of 12db. The Wingard 9032 has an average gain across channels 14-50 of almost 16db, i.e., more than twice the delivered power. It lowest gain is 11.5 db at channel 69. (Assuming nobody's fudging. ;) ). I'll bet with this antenna you could get WKRG more reliably. I use the 9022 (one model down) and I get 100% on my Directv meter on all the P'cola stations including WKRG almost all the time. Occasionally it dips into the high 90s. Of course I am about 10-15 miles closer than you.

My 9022 cost about $30. I think the 9032 is about $10 more. They can be bought in P'cola.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/pdf/pr-9032.pdf

Rick, couple of questions. What side of town do you live on? Also where in P'cola can you buy this antenna? Are you able to pick up the digital Fox channel with a good signal too? Fox's DTV channel is the one I need to get better reception on since I have all the others through the cox hd box (except for abc and fox) abc comes in very well though--even with a small antenna

I live 1 mile north of Baker. I have my antenna about 25 ft up with a clear view to the west. I got the antenna at Pace Electronics. They're north of I-10 I think on old US 29 North. It will not get WALA Fox because it's only UHF and WALA is VHF. But truthfully no antenna on the market will get WALA where I live. Sheesh, people in P'cola and Milton have trouble pulling in that pitifully weak signal. Oh yeah, I use a 2 stage Radio Shack amp ($60) to over come the line loss over the long run to my TV.

Anyone have problems last night with CBS? Couldn't get a good signal for King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, etc. Usually it's OK. I'm in west Mobile.
Joe

Hi im new to this forum so i hope somebody can help me,i live in panama city fl. zip 32444. I have 2 hd recivers hooked up to 2 different tvs the recivers are from dish the new 622 and the 811 both hd rec.I have a ota antenna hooked up on my roof and i get on both tvs ota cbs,abc,nbc,upn,fox oh wait the 622 fox but thats not the problem, all the ota feeds come in good on both rec the problem is c b s on both rec comes in where the voice does not match the video and pic is relly good on both tvs cbs is the only feed that does this. I dont think its the position of the antenna as all feeds come in good on both tvs with a reciver on each tv. Has anybody had this kind of problem before and can it be fixed or do i just have to live with it plus my antenna is split one cable goint to the 622 tv the other going to the 811 tv best buy put up the antenna and it has a amp on it a wineguard and the antenna terk any input would be greatly appre thank you all .SAM. :)

Sam,

If it is just one station doing it, and it does it on two systems, it must be the station. Call or email them and tell them about it. They can make adjustments. Is it CBS out of Dothan? I can get them at my house but I use CBS from Mobile usually. I'll check tonight to see if I get the same problem.

What is the deal with WKRG not showing the basketball games in HD? They didnt have the Duke game in HD and they still are not showing the games now in HD, anyone know who I can complain to? Thanks WKP

What is the deal with WKRG not showing the basketball games in HD? They didnt have the Duke game in HD and they still are not showing the games now in HD, anyone know who I can complain to? Thanks WKP

The Alabama-Marquette game on Thursday was in high def, but many of the other regionals are not. This is a CBS issue-- not WKRG.

The Duke game was broadcast nationally in HD, they said it at the beginning of the game and it is listed on the HD sports guide as an HD game. This IS a WKRG issue. I saw the game Thursday and it was in HD, but today they screwed up! WKP

WKRG is not broadcasting the Pitt/Bradley game in HD again today! This game is being televised nationally in HD but WKRG has AGAIN failed to broadcast it correctly. Ridiculous!

The Duke game was broadcast nationally in HD, they said it at the beginning of the game and it is listed on the HD sports guide as an HD game. This IS a WKRG issue. I saw the game Thursday and it was in HD, but today they screwed up! WKP

I doubt it is a screw up. Either for some reason it is technically unavailable or they have made the decision not to show it in HD.

Also-my receiver, when viewing WKRG 5.1, shows 5.1 surround but only outputting stereo. It wasn't my TV or receiver 'cause I checked out other channels. Anybody else have this problem? This only happened when the game wasn't shown in HD. The Alabama game last night had 5.1

I'm sure this has been answered, but its a little difficult to search this thread...

When watching shows in HD the audio is low, so I have to turn up the volume. However, when the commercials start, its so loud I can't stand it. I've gotten into the habit of muting the commercials. I've noticed this at other peoples setup too.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

I'm wondering if its because HD is in 5.1, and the commercials are in regular stereo...would this effect volume?

I'm sure this has been answered, but its a little difficult to search this thread...

When watching shows in HD the audio is low, so I have to turn up the volume. However, when the commercials start, its so loud I can't stand it. I've gotten into the habit of muting the commercials. I've noticed this at other peoples setup too.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

I'm wondering if its because HD is in 5.1, and the commercials are in regular stereo...would this effect volume?

Its been this way all alone. You just have to put up with it. WKRG is the worse.

Channel 47 digital (15-1) wasn't broadcasting HD Sunday night, so I called the news hotline at 9:05 and what do you know, someone flipped the HD switch at 9:15!!

Two out of the big four now! NBC and CBS in HD, WOO HOO !

Was it just me or did Fox digital self-destruct last night?

J C

Wasn't just you, JC. Mine did too. Thought it may be my antenna; thanks for letting us know.

New to the thread and the area... and I've reviewed a few of the earlier posts. Good info.

I'm moving to a place in Baker about a mile north of the 90 freeway, just off of the 189 (actually almost as close to Holt as Baker). I have DirecTV and have the automatic waivers for HD locals in place for ABC, NBC, and FOX. I'm waiting for a response from WKRG. In the meantime I'm wondering how OTA reception is in that area. I saw a bit on WKRG tending to be weak--have they upgraded their signal since some of the earlier posts in the thread?

Also wondering what lengths I will have to go to for OTA reception. I have a CM4228 and Silver Sensor, and also have the CM7777 preamp. Are people having to put up towers to pull in the locals from our area? It doesn't look like indoor/attic reception is going to work at my distance from the P'cola/Mobile towers. I also saw the bit about CBS in Dothan... is that the only local there?

Thanks for any info.

Hi Dirac, and welcome to the forum.

I too live in Baker. But I'm 1 mile north of the "city". From this distance (57 - 62 miles) I get all the P'cola and Mobile stations (including WKRG) except WALA Fox at 100% on my STB meter. I use a Winegard 9022 antenna on a 25 foot pole.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/pdf/pr-9022.pdf

I don't know the specs on the antennas or amp you have but for me, I went with one of the highest gain antennas I could find. I live in fairly open territory. If you are in a low area and/or in woods you might want to step up to the 9032 model. It has a little more gain. (It is the highest gain UHF antenna I could find on the market.) I got my 9022 at Pace Electronics in P'cola for about $35. The 9032 was about $10 more. Also, use only RG-6 cable and if it is a long way to your set (say, over 50 ft) I'd suggest an amplifier with the first stage up on the mast. I use a Radio Shack amp that runs about $60. There are better amps out there but the Radio Shack one is adaquate. You know the ol' digital saying, either you get it or you don't. Well, I'm getting it so I'll stick with it. Plus if it gets zapped by lightning (which it has) I just go to the Shack and I'm back up and running the same day.

Good luck. Hope your reception is as good as mine.

Thanks for that info. If reception's that good at that distance, I'm tempted to try my setup in the attic due to WAF issues (and hope the loss isn't too much).

Who are the cable providers in the area? Looking for a provider who also has high speed internet (I think that's almost everyone now)... I know Comcast is in Crestview but Mediacom is in the area too. Thanks.

I'm tempted to try my setup in the attic

That's what I'd do. Maybe you'll get lucky.

Who are the cable providers in the area?

We don't have cable out where I am. Don't know about your area.

Years ago the cable folks came around doing a survey asking if we'd sign up for it if they ran it out to our area. Said "no". Wish I had the choice now. I'l love to quit Directv.

Hello,
Is it me or is everyone out there having a pixelation problem with WEAR digital
channel 17 ABC in pensacola Fla.
I can't watch the game in HD.

Threads merged.

Dirac,

I down in FWB, using the CM4228. Reception is good for Penscola/Mobile. Two problems are FOX and WKRG-CBS. Nothing on FOX, same as Crestview. CBS is the weakest of the stations I get, and is view-able about 40-50% of the time. This is with a ~30 foot pole. You're a little closer to the Mobile tower farm and you have WTVY-CBS from Dothan as a strong CBS signal, so give the attic install a try, but don't be surprised if you have to move it to an outside pole if the attic weakens the signal too much.

Thanks.

Has anyone had success petitioning WKRG for a waiver to receive WCBS-DT via DirecTV? Still no word from the station, according to D*.

I could never get them or wear to give me a waiver.

Dirac,

I got a waiver for WKRG 5 on the first request when I signed up for Directv HD. If you didn't get one ask Directv to apply for it again. That's the route, not the station. A company called Decisionmark is the one that makes the call. Directv will reapply when asked if some number of days has elaped since last request, either 30 or 90 days... I can't remember.

Cinder: Call DirecTV again and ask for the HD DNS department. They added NBC HD for me without a waiver. Perhaps they changed their policy since the last time you tried. Worth a shot!

Ricknau: Thanks... it's been a little less than a month, and DirecTV is "required" to wait 45 days, so they told me.

Well, the waiver came in today. It took right about 4 weeks. All four HD nets are now in place!

Anyone around Pace getting Fox OTA? If so, where are you located and what is your setup? I'm about to move near Spencer Field and I want to get WALA if I can. I'd also like to have my cake and eat it too by putting my antenna in the attic since I don't think my home owners association will alow a Dish and an antenna.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff

By the way, the local Dish installer said that they have had good results with the Channelmaster 5646 but WALA is still weak.

I don't know why I'm considering it but I guess I need to know all of my options. I've searched online. I've called Mediacom twice. I've emailed Mediacom. No one, nowhere can tell me what Mediacom's channel and package offerings are in a simple format similar to the way Dish and DirectTV do it. I've got a friend who's and installer for Mediacom. Maybe HE can tell me something? I'm currently considering the Dish HD Silver package with the 622 HD DVR dual tuner. I'm trying to sell it as connected to one TV for each provider so that I can get an apples to apples comparison. Then, I'll ask what each additional connection costs, etc. Does anyone have Mediacom in Pace, Milton, or Gulf Breeze? I'm wondering what channels are truely digital and what HD channels they offer. Also, if a show is offered in HD, does Mediacom forward the HD signal or do they continue to show SD? Take Fox WALA for example. Would they forward an HD broadcast of a program on Fox or does it just come through as digital?
Thanks,
Jeff

Well, the waiver came in today. It took right about 4 weeks. All four HD nets are now in place!


Way to go! I'm jealous. I only got waivers for Fox and CBS. Not that I needed ABC or NBC, they come in strong.

I'm not sure how it works with the waiver thing. It has to be done on an individual basis with DirectTV to get them as a local? I don't think Dish works that way. At least, my local rep didn't mention it. She just said locals for $6 a month.
Jeff

The waivers we refer to allow Directv to pipe us, out of either NY or LA depending on where we live, the networks in HD that we (supposedly) can't get OTA. So the waiver is not to get us our locals but rather a substitue HD station to fill a void. This can't be done without the permission of the local station (the waiver). Directv does give us all of our our locals (I think for free) but they are not HD.

DirecTV's locals come with the base package. You can turn them down (or if your area doesn't offer locals at all) and save about $3 a month. So technically they're not free, but they're cheap and they come standard.

HD locals are included if you subscribe to locals or the HD pack, but if your local area doesn't offer HD locals through DirecTV, you need to go through the waiver process to have either New York or LA locals added (depending on your time zone). When I called, I was told only CBS required the waiver and they immediately turned on the other 3, but I'm not sure if that is based on DMA, ZIP code, or address. I had to wait for the approval from WKRG before DirecTV added WCBS, which took about 4 weeks.

There are also the SD distant networks from LA and New York. Those cost $9 a month for the complete set of 8, but you can't get them added to your account if your DMA's locals are available from DirecTV (thanks to the new SHVERA). Almost everyone who has the distant networks now has them in grandfathered status because of the new rule.

Dish seems better to me with the locals thing (and they offer more than just NY-LA), but I don't have experience with them. I certainly have no place to complain about DirecTV with my personal experience--just seems like Dish is more flexible with the locals.

All of this will probably become moot once DirecTV offers all 210 DMAs' locals in HD, which they seem to be gearing toward with the new SV launches.

Thanks for the info fellas. I'm pretty sure I'm going with Dish. My main concern is whether or not I can get WALA DT OTA and if my sound/picture sync issue will go away for WEAR DT OTA if I install a quality VHF-UHF antenna in my attic. I doubt my home owner's association will allow a dish and an OTA antenna in view. I'm on Mediacom analog right now for cable and it's laughable that neither their customer service nor the internet sites can tell me exactly what they offer in HD or their digital channels. All they can tell me is what it will cost and how many channels I will get, lol. I'm moving into my new house next weekend and Mediacom has been trying to determine for two days now IF they can even offer cable on the new street where I'll live since it's a relatively new street. The only reason I'm concerned is because I use Mediacom for my internet and I know it beats the pants off of DSL in my area. I talked to a guy today who lives in Milton and he said he gets WALA without any problems. Of course, he has an outdoor antenna but if he can do it at least seven miles farther away with an outdoor antenna, I should be fine with an attic based antenna as long as it's high enough. I hope....?
Cheers,
Jeff

I know you're not getting much info from your cable company but I would keep striving. Maybe find a forum or talk to anyone you can find who subscribes. The reason I say this is because I've read that many cable companies deliver better HD picture quality than either satelite company. I wouldn't commit until I was real sure I was making the best informed choice.

As far OTA antennas go, neighborhood associations have no legal right to disallow the use of an antenna. Regardless of what you may have signed. If you chalenge them they will back down.

One more thing... regarding WALA, good luck! That is the most hit or miss signal on the planet. It is just plain weak, regardless of what their engineers say. If you plow throught he threads on this you will see that many folks who live pretty close have trouble getting it consistantly. Those in the fringe have even worse luck. From Pace... sorry, I'm betting against you. But maybe I'm wrong. I'd for sure get a good VHF antenna that I could return later if it doesn't work and then cross my fingers. You do realize they are VHF, right?

One more one more thing. Your sync problem with WEAR can't be caused by your antenna. Maybe your receiver but not the antenna.

I'm using the built in ATSC tuner on my brand new HP PL4260N. It only gets sync issues on HD broadcasts and not always. Invasion is pretty crisp but Desperate Housewives and Lost have the sound lagging behind the picture. My signal strength shows 10 or 11 out of twelve signal bars as green so the signal is pretty good. I think the Dish ViP 622 HD DVR receiver should be able to make adjustments for this but I'm not sure.
Thanks again for the info. As for the cable vs Dish thing, I think what makes me lean so much towards Dish is the sheer quantity of HD programming and all digital all the time whereas Mediacom is only digital above channel 80 something.
Jeff

Most sync problems are caused by the provider or affiliate screwing up the transmission feed. DirecTV has problems with Discovery HD (especially) occasionally, and KNBC-DT still had audio/video sync issues when I last saw it. It's probably not your setup. If you can confirm someone else has the same problem, it might be time to write the affiliate's engineering department.

Most sync problems are caused by the provider or affiliate screwing up the transmission feed. DirecTV has problems with Discovery HD (especially) occasionally, and KNBC-DT still had audio/video sync issues when I last saw it. It's probably not your setup. If you can confirm someone else has the same problem, it might be time to write the affiliate's engineering department.

In other words, I couldn't hope to phone them or get an email to them? Just curious. Snail mail is so....last year, lol.
Jeff

Cool i'll try the HD DNS department, haven't tried that before. Got my two waivers three years ago and haven't tried since.

If anyone is interested in or knows someone looking for a job in sales for a fast growing custom home theater company i'd love to know as we're looking for someone. It's not retail, so the person either needs to know and understand home theater as a system or be willing to learn.

As always if any AVSers are looking for gear i always hook up my fellow board members.

Daniel

That's good to know Daniel. I'm in Pace and I may be in the market a couple of components. I know a guy in the business but I don't think he's looking to merge. I'll keep you in mind though.
Regards,
Jeff

Actually, by "write" I was thinking email. You're right about "last year", but it can also be really effective--written letters are harder to ignore.

Actually, by "write" I was thinking email. You're right about "last year", but it can also be really effective--written letters are harder to ignore.

Excellent point.
Jeff

Jeff,

When do you notice the WEAR sync problem? I watch WEAR a siginificant amount of the time and I haven noticed a problem. Is it just occasionally?

What's the update on getting WALA - Fox on Comcast HD? I know they were supposed to get the equipment back in March, so anyone know what the holdup is?

Has anyone heard anything for WKRG or WEAR for Mediacomm in the West Mobile Area? Bad enough missed matching the final 4 in HD, and there isn't a TNT HD offered on Mediacom. Would like to watch some of the NBA Finals without having to buy a hd receiver($200+). Wish NBC still had the NBA finals as they did years ago after they got it from CBS. I hope ESPN will carry the finals just to watch it in HD. If Mediacom doesn't offer locals and TNT and ESPN2 in HD when football season starts up I might have to Direct TV/Dish/??? some thought.

Has anyone heard anything for WKRG or WEAR for Mediacomm in the West Mobile Area? Bad enough missed matching the final 4 in HD, and there isn't a TNT HD offered on Mediacom. Would like to watch some of the NBA Finals without having to buy a hd receiver($200+). Wish NBC still had the NBA finals as they did years ago after they got it from CBS. I hope ESPN will carry the finals just to watch it in HD. If Mediacom doesn't offer locals and TNT and ESPN2 in HD when football season starts up I might have to Direct TV/Dish/??? some thought.


I have had DirecTV ever since Hughes Inc. started it up. DTV HD programming is $9.99 per month and includes TNT HD on channel 75.

The only problem with DTV is when it starts raining, so I have an OTA antenna, 190 mile range with a HD amplifier. I live in Navarre, FL so DTV and WALA ch 10 allows me to receive FOX HD on ch 88.

Lots of luck.

If Mediacom doesn't offer locals and TNT and ESPN2 in HD when football season starts up I might have to Direct TV/Dish/???

As I understand it, neither Dish nor Direct offer CBS, NBC, FOX, or ABC in HD (at least in this market). If you want them in HD, you'll have to get them OTA anyway. FWIW, I've heard mention of Direct piping either a NY or LA based affiliate (via a waiver) to subscribers here but the satellite guy I talked to said it was likely just an SD feed and not HD. As for Mediacom offering HD locals, I wouldn't hold my breath. What do they have, five HD channels now? I'm using Mediacom for analog cable throughout my house and Dish for my plasma. If Dish gets cheaper/easier to use with multiple TVs (I have at least seven) or if Mediacom ponies up and offers a serious HD package, I might switch to one or the other. In the meantime, I'm going to install an antenna and amplifier in my attic and hope for the best. I was getting everything but Fox (WALA) with an indoor antenna so I hope that a decent attic based antenna will get the rest for me. If not, it will be going back to the store. Besides, the best HD signal you can get is from the big satellite dish. The second best is from OTA. The small dishes are the third best.

Regards,
Jeff

It's definately HD with a waiver for the NY feeds, we used to get ny and la feeds in hd, but now only get both in SD.

Mediacom is stagnant in our area.

Antenna is the way to go. I prefer the antennas direct db2 and db4 antennas but there are many good ones. I'm interested in trying their new Crossfire antenna, it's intriguing.

FWIW, I've heard mention of Direct piping either a NY or LA based affiliate (via a waiver) to subscribers here but the satellite guy I talked to said it was likely just an SD feed and not HD.

They do pipe in the locals in SD (for little or no fee) but with a waiver you definitely get major networks from distant stations HD.

Cool! I didn't know that. I wonder if Dish does it too? I'll have to bounce over to DBSTalk and see if I can find out.
Jeff

Jeff,

When do you notice the WEAR sync problem? I watch WEAR a siginificant amount of the time and I haven noticed a problem. Is it just occasionally?

Sorry it took so long to see this post. I notice it mostly on Desparate Housewives and Lost. It seems to help if I tune to a different channel and come back to ABC but only temporarily most of the time. Now that I have a 622, I'll have to see if it still does the same thing. Only now, I don't have Lost or DHW to test it on. I would suspect that the NTSC tuner in the 622 is better than the one in the HP PL4260N PDP I have. After all, it is a dedicated receiver.

I'm also hoping to get my antenna installed in the attic this weekend. I'm looking at a Channel Master 3018 with a 3041DSB amplifier. It says the VHF range (most important considering I can get all UHF channels with an indoor antenna) is 60 miles. If you cut that in half because I put it into the attic and then add back a few points for an amplifier, I'm hoping to pull in WALA which is 40 miles from me. It will be about 18-20 feet off of the ground when mounted as high as I can get it in the attic. I've got a pretty large space in the center near the top of the roof. Anyone got any suggestions on a cheaper/better combination in the attic?
Thanks,
Jeff

All,

Mediacom HD Offerings in Gulf Breeze: WPMI HD (NBC) , WKRG HD (CBS) , PBS HD ch , ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, DISCOVERY HD, Universal HD, HDNET1, HDNET2, HBOHD, and SHOW HD.

I notice it mostly on Desparate Housewives and Lost.

Well shoot! I watch ABC but not those shows. I'll try to make a point of checking them out this week.

I did notice this past Sunday that the audio didn't sync on Meet the Press on NBC. I watch that quite often and that's the first time I've had that happen that I can remember. I'll bet it's the local affiliates screwing something up. That's something I'm sure they can control. Maybe they just don't pay attention sometimes.

Thanks for the feedback. Just seems wierd that Gulfbreeze(2 posts up) gets WKRG,PBS, and ESPN2 in HD and that Mobile Area doesn't. I do know someone that does have a hd set and that there channel 3 is also not in sync, it wasn't quite as bad when watching sports but is noticeable on reg shows.

Right Kevin. I didn't notice it as much during the NBA playoffs that were on ABC but you have to remember that they don't show the speakers' mouthes as often on sports. I noticed that my VIP622 receiver has an audio sync section in the config. If I run into the issue again, I'll play with it.

Rick,
Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Invasion have all had their season finales. So, at least I won't have as much to complain about. One funny thing, I moved two miles farther away from the transmission towers and my indoor antenna works much better on ABC than it did previously. I was getting about 70% with the antenna boost all the way to max. Now, I have to turn it down or it will clip on signal overload which results in black screen dropouts. I'm hoping to put my new Channel Master 3018 and Spartan 3 into play this weekend. I'll post back on what my results are.

Regards,
Jeff

MediaCrap told me that they had no plans of broadcasting HD in my area, But I get CBS and FOX N.Y. in HD from D* and the other 2 channels with my OTA. We don't even get a SD picture that we can watch on anything over a 19" screen from mediacrap the PQ is so bad. and they have the balls to charge 20 bucks for the basic 13 channels. and If I cancel it my Broadband connection goes up 10 more bucks.

Fox and CBS are on their way out if that court case doesn't get overturned. The broadcaster's association won a lawsuit that prohibits the transmission of distant stations. That stinks because some of us can't get it with an OTA antenna. I'll know for sure by the end of the weekend or not if I can get Fox (WALA). I can get the rest with an indoor antenna but I'm installing the Channel Master and the Spartan 3 amplifier tonight or tomorrow morning. I already have the wire ran and the indoor portion of the amp setup. I can't wait.

As for MediaCrap, those guys couldn't find their hiney with both hands. It took me two weeks and six phone calls to verify that my new house (on a new street) would have service and that was of no thanks to them. I called my buddy who works for MediaCom and he went out and verified it for me. I called MediaCom back and TOLD THEM that I had service and gave them the tech's name. They even screwed up the fact that I opted to go internet only and wanted to CHARGE ME to come back and downgrade me this coming Monday. I don't think so. That filter will be lucky to see the sun rise on Tuesday morning. ;) Even the extreme version of DSL in my area can't hold a candle to cable internet.

Cheers,
Jeff

Another note. I'm in Pace, just east of Spencer Field. The lady at Dan's Satellites was very doubtful that I'd be able to get Fox OTA even with the antenna they recommend (Channel Master 5646 Super Vee). They wanted like $229 to install it outdoors. Heck, I bought the Channel Master 3018 and the Channel Master Spartan 3 preamp, and 100' of RG6 from Lowes and did it myself. I get WALA (Fox) at 86% and WEAR at 93-97%. Since it's been so dry, a good shower or thunderstorm would be a great test. The decking on the roof is surely bone dry (less the dampness from humidity). I know that when the wood is "wetter", the reception will degrade but I don't know how much. It looks like I can call Dish and cancel my local channels. Between the antenna install and the phone line hookup, I'll be saving myself about $10 a month. That'll pay for the $180 total investment into an antenna/preamp/wire in a year and a half alone without considering the fact that I'll get HD locals. :D

Regards,
Jeff

So what happened about the CBS FOX lawsuit?
I'm down buy Mexico Beach and the only feed of CBS comes from Dothan and there is no way to get it here, I have the 3020 antenna with booster, I have better luck getting Pennsacolia's cbs.

So what happened about the CBS FOX lawsuit?
I'm down buy Mexico Beach and the only feed of CBS comes from Dothan and there is no way to get it here, I have the 3020 antenna with booster, I have better luck getting Pennsacolia's cbs.

Is Court rules in Echostar Distant Networks Case (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=58307)

If so, I think you may just be cut off unless the waiver process can still override the ruling.
Jeff

Is anyone in the Crestview, Baker, FWB, and Niceville area experiencing low signal strength from WEAR 3-1? I rescan the channels and oddly I'm picking up WLOX 13-1 out of Biloxi better than WEAR 3-1. Could this be "sun spots"?

on Comcast. Happy Father's Day!

If anyone cares it's official now, WB-55 got the CW network for our area. Really wanted 44 to get it because they already have HD caipabilities.

Does anyone have any inside poop on when 55 might go HD?

J C

WB-55 got the CW network for our area
Pardon my ignorance. What is CW network? Also, is 55 even broadcasting digital? They're the only station of all of my locals that I can't pick up OTA.

Is anyone in the Crestview, Baker, FWB, and Niceville area experiencing low signal strength from WEAR 3-1? I rescan the channels and oddly I'm picking up WLOX 13-1 out of Biloxi better than WEAR 3-1. Could this be "sun spots"?

I'm in Pace and my WEAR has been running between 94 and 97 on my Vip622 Dish receiver. It's funny you should mention that you're suddenly getting a more distant station though. I rescanned the other night and now I'm getting WFSU? In Pace? That's 191 miles east of me. Of course, the signal is very sporadic. If the weather's just right, I can view it without drop outs. On top of that, it's out the back side of my antenna, not the direction it is aiming.

Regards,
Jeff

ARGH, that's terrible. I have never been able to pick up 55 in digital, 44 is great and the engineers there are very receptive. oh well...

The CW Network is the merger of the WB and UPN

There is no 55 "digital". It was broadcast in widescreen SD as 10-2 when WALA and WPBG (WB55) were co-owned. (That multicasting caused a serious problem with picture quality on 10-1 and was often turned off during football and other high-profile events.). "55" has been assigned digital 25 for use after the cutoff of analog broadcasting. Other than that, I've never seen anything indicating a start date for "digital 55".

I talked with a good contact locally with directv and we are "supposedly" all set to get local HD in Mobile/Baldwin starting December 1st.

He also said they've been testing the 5 lnb system, firing them on then firing them off. His company started doing all 5 lnb sat dishes for all new installs two months ago per directv's request. Anyway, some installs all 5 lnb's have signals with test patterns on the new 2 lnb's, and some installs they're shut off.

I'm pretty sure 10-2 would have been considered "digital" just not HD. When they first fired it up, after Pegasus lost the contract and WALA bought it, i believe it was 480p widescreen, but it may have been 480i widescreen. Regardless it still would have been a digital subchannel that you needed an atsc tuner to receive. Just like our crappy weather subchannels aren't HD but they are still digital. I could be wrong.

I don't have E* I Have D* and I have waivers for CBS and FOX. The only other way to get them is with Cable, so they would have to stop Cable and D* from supplying distant locals. And if they do stop them they will open a can of Whipass in the US.

I talked with a good contact locally with directv and we are "supposedly" all set to get local HD in Mobile/Baldwin starting December 1st.


Great if it happens, but I am skeptical that it will.

I get it now, FREE OTA.

I get it now, FREE OTA.
You won't get a better signal either. Whether your eyes can see it or your ears can hear it, the OTA signal is almost always superior to what you get from satellite. The satellite companies often compress the signal just a little to free up bandwidth for additional channels.
Jeff

I get ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX out of New York from [D*]. There is not a dime worth of difference in the OTA [PQ] that we get here. There is someone else on our board that has all the distant net-works from D* so maybe he will chime in too.

I haven't heard of anyone getting distant networks from E*. Will they do it? Anyone know? Also, trich, has D* said anything about the court case that ruled against them in the distant networks trial? As for the dime's worth of difference, it's the money savings that makes the picture better with OTA ;) That, and the fact that if the satellite goes down, due to weather or whatever, I still have a shot at picking up a signal. I still have analog cable on all of my analog TVs too. That's handy in a hurricane which we've had our share of.
Jeff

I get ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX out of New York from [D*]. There is not a dime worth of difference in the OTA [PQ] that we get here. There is someone else on our board that has all the distant net-works from D* so maybe he will chime in too.

That's me, but I don't have OTA or satellite set up yet at the new house. Any recommendations on a good installer?

I still need to call about abc and cbs, but i agree nation nbc and fox are spot on and i always record them because they are also much more consistent than our local channels (especially fox.) Now the spotbeam mpeg4 of our locals i'm not sold on. I'll definately have an antenna as well.

Daniel, the day they turn on the spotbeam here all distant nets will be gone. If you look around the program forum you will see they are already doing it.

I'm aware of this and it sucks... I just hope the local HD is as good as the national feeds are. I'm going to miss the new york feeds and nearly always having the show on regardless of what is going on locally weather wise...

Plus all the NFL games that we will not be getting then. This LIL thing sucks........

very true. Will we get CW LIL?

I wouldn't last a day without sunday ticket :)

I got ST the first year it was offered and I thought it was a waste of money. All the good games we're on the Local channels anyway, And now all the OTA games will be in HD.
Of coarse my team ain't worth a chit anyway. the Lions

Does anyone in the area have the new Directv Dish? I am supposed to have mine upgraded on the 24th. I am wondering how the new HD receivers are? I currently have the Samsung T-360 HD receiver, I think it is going to be replaced by the H-20. Also, since the new receiver is an MPEG 4 system, will my old Tivo and regular receiver still work with the new dish?

Directv told me that I need the new receiver to receive the RSN channels (Fox Sports South and Turner South) HD broadcasts.

Any info would be appreciated! WKP

Here is every thing you ever wanted to know about the H20. Over 3k posts. The H20 has the best PQ of any STB that I ever had but there are some bugs in it. There are two H20s, 100 and 600. I've had both. The 600 runs very hot, the 100 does not.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=598538

wkp1: the new dish will work with your existing receivers... better than your current dish in the weather, too, as it's quite a bit bigger. I'm planning to replace my Phase III with the new AT9 dish for this reason, and for future possibilities with the new MPEG4 programming.

The bad thing is, as you may know, all existing DirecTV receivers except the R-15 NDS DVR and the H20 HD receiver are MPEG2 only. So, while your existing receivers will work, you won't be able to view the new MPEG4 channels on them. And you can't record MPEG4 at all until the HR20 is released. That receiver should have been released six months ago.

By the way, I finally got a Silver Sensor and dish set up here tonight... I could actually pull in the Big 3 with just the SS and an amp sitting on top of the entertainment center (PBS was shaky, UPN was good, 48-1 was also good). The PQ looked very slightly better OTA than via satellite, but the sitcoms, Lost, Criminal Minds (low demand shows) were on tonight. Some of the best (worst?) TV I've seen for showing PQ are basketball games, where they show the crowd pan by as the players move down the court. On KCBS-HD during March Madness, there was horrendous pixilation in most scenes with even modest movement. I think that would be a result of compressing the signal to travel over satellite; it was fine when the motion stopped. I'm looking to find something similar on OTA HD to compare.

I'm also going to go up to the attic to try the CM4228. I was getting about 80% signal downstairs with the Silver Sensor... I should be able to do better going with the higher gain and higher placement, but I'm going to diplex it in, so I may lose a little doing that. I don't think I'm going to get high 90s without going outside, but if I can get consistent signal out of the Big 3 and PBS I'll be happy.

One question before I go... when the hell is Fox going to increase their transmitter power!? :rolleyes:

Hey I'm new to HD. I would appreciate it if anyone had suggestions regarding OTA reception/antennas and installers in Gulf Breeze area. Will indoor work or attic antenna work?

TV Samsung LN-S4692D
Just signed up for DirectTV HDTV H-20 box

Hey I'm new to HD. I would appreciate it if anyone had suggestions regarding OTA reception/antennas and installers in Gulf Breeze area. Will indoor work or attic antenna work?

TV Samsung LN-S4692D
Just signed up for DirectTV HDTV H-20 box

Chances are good that a powered indoor antenna (Radio Shack, about $30) will work for the UHF stations which means all but Fox. They (WALA) are broadcasting on VHF channel 9 and are hard to get without a 20-30 foot outdoor antenna.

wkp1: the new dish will work with your existing receivers... better than your current dish in the weather, too, as it's quite a bit bigger.

Umm.. like how much bigger? And (sorry to illustrate my ignorance) does it point in exactly the same direction? In other words are new satellites being used for this MPEG 4 service?

Don't get the AT9 dish, wait for the "slim line" coming later this year.
Drop down to page 34.

http://www.longhornxp.net/directvnews.pdf

Umm.. like how much bigger? And (sorry to illustrate my ignorance) does it point in exactly the same direction? In other words are new satellites being used for this MPEG 4 service?

Yes, there will be 5 satellites and one dish. Two new sat. will go up early next year.

Thanks, I'll look into it. Do you know if the other channels are eventually going to move to VHF? From what little I have read so far Fox is a problem.

Is anybody having luck pulling in Fox in the GB, P-Cola area with indoor or attic antenna? ...and if so what type?

Thanks

GBDOC, I have a Terk HDTVa indoor antenna and I can get FOX here in Pensacola (Marcus Pointe). It took some major tweaking with the VHF rabbit ears but I get it with a signal strength of 66-70. What I found work is to tape the middle of the rabbit ears to my wall so they are flush. This is the only way I could get a consistent signal. It takes a lot of trial and error and patience but once I got it, I don't have to mess with it at all. One drawback of doing this is that the UHF portion of my antenna is not pointing in the proper direction. Therefore I don't get CBS or NBC without having to move the antenna and messing up my FOX signal. This doesn't bother me because I get CBS and NBC HD through Cox Cable. I do get ABC OTA (signal strength of 87-91) with my current configuration. It's a stronger signal that I get with the antenna is almost any position. I'm sure I could probably tweak the antenna some more to get all the channels at once but I don't need to. Hope this helps.

Also I'm not sure what the difference is between the Terk HDTVa and HDTVi antennas, they may be the same.

ebuchholz,
Thanks for the info. My TV is coming on Monday and I want to make sure I am ready for football season!

Thanks, I'll look into it. Do you know if the other channels are eventually going to move to VHF? From what little I have read so far Fox is a problem.

From this FCC database:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

It appears that all of our channels will stay on the current digital assignment except that NBC will move from UHF 47 back to UHF 15, and WBPG (WB55) has been assigned 25 as a post 2009 digital assignment. Summary, all of our digital stations will be UHF except for FOX (WALA) broadcasting as Channel 10 on VHF channel 9.

So, anybody have a clue where CW network will be this fall season for the Mobile area? Will is be UPN 44 (yeaaa!) or WB 55 (boooo!)

Rick

So, anybody have a clue where CW network will be this fall season for the Mobile area? Will is be UPN 44 (yeaaa!) or WB 55 (boooo!)

Rick

Haven't I seen some prior posts that suggest it's 55? I hope it's not true!

I've read on here it is going to 55 which is terrible.

So, anybody have a clue where CW network will be this fall season for the Mobile area? Will is be UPN 44 (yeaaa!) or WB 55 (boooo!)

Rick

"When LIN acquired WALA-TV on November 30, 2005, the company began operating WBPG (which had already been WALA's sister station under Emmis) under a local marketing agreement (LMA). A little over seven months later, on July 7, 2006, LIN purchased WBPG outright.

In September 2006, WBPG will join the CW, formed by the merger of the WB and UPN."

Now that WBPG and WALA are co-owned by LIN, I would expect CW to reappear as 10-2 (wide-screen standard definition) as before, until they actually start broadcasting as digital channel 25 (in 2009 or later?). In the earlier arrangement, the use of 10-2 seriously degraded 10-1 during sporting events and they finally started shutting down 10-2 during sports. Hopefully, they can do a better job now than they did before.

Well i got the new AT-9 dish and H20-100 HD receiver installed this week. The good news is the Picture quality is better and the OTA reception is much better than my old Samsung T-360.

I'm not wild about the new receiver. It seems to work fine, but it is not very user friendly. The menu is basically identical to the standared D-11 receiver.

The dish is a good bit bigger. The installer said we should be getting HD locals from Directv around the first of the year.

P.S. WE are not in the spot beam that gets Turner South and Fox Sports Sout in HD as of yet, should be by the end of the year accroding to Directv.

Does anyone know what NFL games will be televised locally this season? I've emailed each of the station but haven't heard anything back yet.

I have the Directv HD DVR and a 4228 in the attic. I pick up ABC, FOX, CBS very well but I cannot seem to get a good signal with NBC. I have read so much about the problems with FOX but I get a great lock on that signal in HD. I am located in Rock Creek in Fairhope and was wondering if anyone is near that area that has any suggestions as to how to pull in NBC HD OTA but without jeopardizing my reception of the other 3 stations.
Thanks!

uaswimmier1995,

We are in rock creek just about every day. I'd be happy to schedule one of my guys to drop by and help you with your antenna. We use antennas direct db4 antennas for teh best accuracy in daphne/fairhope, but a 4228 really should be great.

email me at daniel@absolutehometheater.net and i'll get someone to help you.

Daniel

Hello, I am located in West Pensacola and I have a Terk HDTVi Indoor antenna. I can pick up all the networks except FOX. Can anyone else in PCOLA pick up FOX, and if so how and with what antenna? According to antennaweb I am 33.9 miles away from the tower :eek:

I think it a fox conspericy since no in in Panama City or Beach can really get Fox it way underpowered

Hello, I am located in West Pensacola and I have a Terk HDTVi Indoor antenna. I can pick up all the networks except FOX. Can anyone else in PCOLA pick up FOX, and if so how and with what antenna? According to antennaweb I am 33.9 miles away from the tower :eek:

Read the forum! Several references to this issue in the past few pages.

Are the 3 stations that you receive a different location than NBC ? One thing that worked for me with the 4228 was to take the back screen off . I live in Crestview and had a good luck getting all stations but Fox. WTVY was 180 degree's from all the other stations with the back off I lost no signal off the front end and gained a station off the back. The screen is very easy to take off and put back on . Good Luck! :D


I have the Directv HD DVR and a 4228 in the attic. I pick up ABC, FOX, CBS very well but I cannot seem to get a good signal with NBC. I have read so much about the problems with FOX but I get a great lock on that signal in HD. I am located in Rock Creek in Fairhope and was wondering if anyone is near that area that has any suggestions as to how to pull in NBC HD OTA but without jeopardizing my reception of the other 3 stations.
Thanks!

Thanks Beachrez, but not quite the answer I was looking for. I did read through the posts after I posted the mssg...but did not see the specifics of what I was looking for. Thankfully, I played around a little more with the antenna, and now I am able to receive FOX. Here's the specifics for those interested. I have a Terk Indoor HDTVi. The difference in the HDTVi and the HDTVa is that the "i" is not amplified, or it does not plug into the wall. As stated in my previous post, I am 33.9 miles from the FOX tower according to antennaweb. I placed the antenna on top of my LCD TV so that it is approx. 5' to 6' in the air. It is facing East so that the back of the antenna is facing West. I then extended the "Rabbit Ears" out to the max so that one is pointing North, and one is pointing South. If you are facing the antenna, or looking West one rod is pointing to 2 o'clock and the other rod is pointing to 10 o'clock. This forms pretty close to a 90 degree angle. Also, to find the channel I had to use the manual search on the TV and enter channel number 09. I am receiving a 69 on the signal strength. Hopefully, this will help anyone else who is trying to receive FOX OTA. You may email me if there are still any questions.

thanks,

matt

Matt:
I have an amplified RCA indoor antenna that I got from HomeDepot which I had low hopes for; I got it there due to their very liberal return policy. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. I am able to pull in an acceptable Fox signal (80 or so) with about 1 dropout every 3-5 minutes. WEAR is great, and I get CBS and NBC on Cox.

This solution is, to be honest, a suboptimal solution. I really should put a real antenna up, but I've never done that so am a bit gunshy. I'll probably get a DB4 and put it in the attic. I have a good line of sight to the transmitters there, and it avoids the problems of grounding and heavy weather.

Update: Gulf Breeze

I decided to put cm4228 in the attic. Reception of all UHF channels is in the low 90s, VHF(fox) is in the low 80s. I will have to see how weather and change of seasons affects reception. :

Interestingly, I can recieve 5-2 with the radar picture and sound going through directtv H10-250 reciever, but going straight to my TV Samsung LN4692, I only recieve sound but no picture? Any thoughts?

update: Fairhope
I happened to be at a big box retailer the other day and saw the Terk indoor amplified antenna, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I placed it on a cabinet directly behind my Sony KDS-60a2000, and now I get great signal strength on ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, and FINALLY NBC. It actually amazed me that such a small antenna in such an inconspicuous place made such a difference. I didn't bother pulling out the rabbit ears, since the digital stations all come in at 85 and up.

Anyone have any ideas what Cox's plans are for channels 10xx. I just noticed the other day they have channels on their set top box now for the 1000 range. They are all currently listed as "Test Channels". I was thinking this may be getting ready for NFL. Any one heard any rumors?

Thanks,
Steve

I was wondering the same thing rute. Also when are they officially going to announce that NFL network HD is on channel 700?

Hi, I am kinda new to this OTA stuff, but I live in Gulfport, MS and I have every channel I need and others that I dont but I can not pick up CBS 15.1 for anything, I've tried everything I know of and I have rotated in every position that I can think of. I just wanted to know if it was me or the station.

CBS is NOT 15.1, that is NBC. I live in Fairhope, AL and pick up NBC 15.1, but it is the weakest signal of the 4 networks for me. It is not at all surprising that you have trouble receiving it.

CBS is NOT 15.1, that is NBC. I live in Fairhope, AL and pick up NBC 15.1, but it is the weakest signal of the 4 networks for me. It is not at all surprising that you have trouble receiving it.

how far are you away from the tower. I really want NBC (not CBS sorry bout that) for NFL Sunday Night Football

Originaly posted by GBDOC1:
I decided to put cm4228 in the attic. Reception of all UHF channels is in the low 90s, VHF(fox) is in the low 80s. I will have to see how weather and change of seasons affects reception. :


I live in Navarre and have a DB8 UHF antenna, and I can pick-up all channels except FOX. I noticed you are using a CM4228 which is also a UHF ant. How are you receiving a VHF station with a UHF ant? Is it it because Gulf Breeze is closer to the station?

Thanks
Greg

how far are you away from the tower. I really want NBC (not CBS sorry bout that) for NFL Sunday Night Football

I'm not exactly sure, but probably within 15 miles or so. I actually pick it up with a Terk hdtva indoor antenna on the first floor, which gets 15.1 better than than the CM4228 in my attic.

I live in Navarre and have a DB8 UHF antenna, and I can pick-up all channels except FOX. I noticed you are using a CM4228 which is also a UHF ant. How are you receiving a VHF station with a UHF ant? Is it it because Gulf Breeze is closer to the station?

Thanks
Greg

Greg,

The CM4228, while a UHF antenna, has a surprising amount of gain around channel 9-10 (+8 dB). See this chart (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html) at bottom of page entitled Using UHF Antennas for VHF (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html). But you are correct, a lot has to do with Gulf Breeze being closer.

Rick,

Thanks for the link, it was very helpful. Looks like in order to pick-up Fox I am going to have to buy a Wingard YA-1713 and a UHF/VHF combiner. Do you think this set-up will work? Don't want to spend another $60 on equipment if it will not work.

Tried to get FOX waiver through Directtv but was turned down.

Thanks
Greg

Does anyone in the Mobile area have the DirecTV H20 and AT-9 dish?

Was wondering if anything is available in MPEG-4 that we can't see with the older receivers.

Thanks J C

Rick,

Thanks for the link, it was very helpful. Looks like in order to pick-up Fox I am going to have to buy a Wingard YA-1713 and a UHF/VHF combiner. Do you think this set-up will work? Don't want to spend another $60 on equipment if it will not work.

Tried to get FOX waiver through Directtv but was turned down.

Thanks
Greg

For FOX, Navarre is in the far fringe area. The FCC 36 dBu contour map (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS1022736.html) gives you a clue as to what was the expected service area. Compare it against WEAR-DT on 17 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT562364.html). So max gain in the antenna is the way to go, possibly with a low-noise pre-amp. What the curve suggest is that it is possible to get FOX, but you may have to work at it. Thats the reason FOX turned you down on the waiver, you are just inside the supposed coverage area. For the antenna, YA-1713 looks like a good choice. But will it work for you ...

You may very well have good sucess with a VHF antenna for FOX in Navarre, but I can't guarantee anything. Up to you to decide.

Hi guys! As for the 10xx channels on Cox, I'm afraid those are not HD channels. They are transitioning to all digital, so those are testing 2-70 as digital, rather than analog. The good news is, that should free up a lot of bandwidth allowing room for more (and hopefully better) HD. Slowly, but surely!!

Graham

So, what is going to happen to us basic subscribers, when Cox goes digital. Are we going to be forced to get a box.

My very nice InFocus 50" DLP is sick (won't accept HDMI input) and has been gone for the last 5 weeks, and no signs it is coming back anytime soon. I have a small Olevia LCD (that will eventually be moved to the bedroom). This TV will not pick up WALA (9.1) on the amplified indoor antenna at all.

So, I decided to put an antenna in the attic. I went with the amplified Lacrosse. After installing (but not fishing the wires) I checked the results. I pick up everything OTA very well, except WALA, including WKRG and WPMI. This Olevia is pretty bare bones, so I can't even give you signal strengths.

The whole point of this is to get Fox in HD. I'm now at a loss for what to do. Here are the options that I can think of:

1) Attempt to move the antenna outside, and hope that helps.
2) Give up on the Lacrosse, and go with a CM4228 in the attic, and if that doesn't work put it outside.
3) Give up on this, and spend the time that I would have spent messing with this writing letters to the general manager of WALA to get the to come to an agreement to get the channel on Cox.

What do you all think?

I am using the 4228 in my attic, and I pick up WALA just fine-- but I am just a few miles from the transmitter. WALA is broadcasting on Channel 9: a VHF frequency, but the UHF only 4228, as reported by others and by my personal experience, picks up WALA anyway-- the high band of VHF being closer in frequency to the lower UHF frequencies. How far from the station are you?

Where are you located?

The lacrosse is a good antenna but it might be that having it amplified is messing up the signal. That said i havne't wokred with the lacrosse that much sticking mostly to db2 and db4 in this area. The 4228 is also very good. I would try it outside to see if things change. I'm using a db4 and pickup wala fine, but in my last location i could not pickup wala no matter what i used and i tried at least ten different antennas. (That was in sehoy in daphne)

Just curious if anyone else in area with Direct Tv is experiencing signal loss. For me it happens almost every night between 6-9 PM. My locals, HD channels, and wife's international channels start pixilating and cutting in and out to blank screen. This only happens on my HD receiver. Other 3 standard receivers have no issues.

During signal loss, checked strength on satellites 110, 119 and 95 (international). Transponders on all 3 satilittes pulse between normal strength and zero signal. Thus the reason for my problem.

Direct troubleshooting team are for the most part no help, and to date, can not tell me what is wrong. This is what I have done so far;

Swapped receivers from H10 to H20
Swapped line from dish to tv
R2 6X8 multiswitch connecting 2 dishes (3LNB and international dish)

only thing not changed are LNBs, but since channels from both dishes are cutting out, I find it hard to belive I have a LNB problem.

Anyone else with these issues? To me it seems like a receiver issue, but I am on my second one.

I've not had any experience like that with H20-600 in Rock Creek. Sorry for your frustration.

Hello everyone... I'm new here and have a few questions. I am currently moving to West Mobile down Airport just before Newman Rd. I have checked and I will be about 45 miles from most of the transmitters. Do you guys think that the Radio Shack VU-90XR will work? It will be mounted outside about 15 feet in the air. There are no trees or tall buildings in the immediate area. Also, how does the CW WBPG 55 get away with not brodcasting digital?

Hello everyone... I'm new here and have a few questions. I am currently moving to West Mobile down Airport just before Newman Rd. I have checked and I will be about 45 miles from most of the transmitters. Do you guys think that the Radio Shack VU-90XR will work? It will be mounted outside about 15 feet in the air. There are no trees or tall buildings in the immediate area. Also, how does the CW WBPG 55 get away with not brodcasting digital?
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html

So what does this tell me? I am new and clueless...

So what does this tell me? I am new and clueless...
just get a Channel Master 4228 8-Bay or a DB8 and be done with it. You may or may not need a amp to go with it.

Hello everyone... I'm new here and have a few questions. I am currently moving to West Mobile down Airport just before Newman Rd. I have checked and I will be about 45 miles from most of the transmitters. Do you guys think that the Radio Shack VU-90XR will work? It will be mounted outside about 15 feet in the air. There are no trees or tall buildings in the immediate area. Also, how does the CW WBPG 55 get away with not brodcasting digital?

I live near the intersection of Dawes & Jeff Hamilton (probably about 5 miles closer to the transmitter than you do). I have the VU-90 with a Radio Shack amp, and the antenna is in my attic. I have no problem picking up any of the digital transmissions, so if you are going to have it mounted outside with no tall obstructions, I would think you would be fine. Enjoy!

Where are you located?

The lacrosse is a good antenna but it might be that having it amplified is messing up the signal. That said i havne't wokred with the lacrosse that much sticking mostly to db2 and db4 in this area. The 4228 is also very good. I would try it outside to see if things change. I'm using a db4 and pickup wala fine, but in my last location i could not pickup wala no matter what i used and i tried at least ten different antennas. (That was in sehoy in daphne)


I got a chimney mount and will try put the Lacrosse outside. If that doesn't work I'll try either the 4228 or DB4, probably outside. I had wanted to avoid that, but it looks like it simply isn't going to work. I'll just have to put "remove antenna from roof" as #1 on my hurricane prep list.

For the record, I'm in Northwest Pensacola, about 30 miles from the WALA transmitter. I'll report back on the results. I'm still annoyed that I'm going through this mess; I should be able to get WALA-HD over Cox.

Does anyone in the Mobile area have the DirecTV H20 and AT-9 dish?

Was wondering if anything is available in MPEG-4 that we can't see with the older receivers.

Thanks J C


I just got the HR-20 HD DVR, Directv has not opened any MPEG4 programming here yet. The tech that did my installation said he heard it may be early Dec, give or take.

xchangx @ gmail.com

does the hr20 hd dvr have the atsc tuner turned on yet?

I have two HR20s and no ota yet. D* told me there will be a download some times in Oct. Danniel, dont you still have your NY nets. I still have them.

i still have fox/nbc new york and use the hd tivo which is night and day better than it used to be since the last firmware upgrade. I'm ready to make the upgrade but will wait til i can pick up antenna.

Hello All...

I'm a long-time reader, first-time poster here, but thought I would share my experiences with receiving the local area OTA HDTV signals. I live in Northwest Pensacola, about 2 miles Northwest of Milestone. I fiddled around with some internal antennas and never could get consistent picture on anything other than WEAR, WKRG and WSRE DT stations. After seeing all the positive posts here about the CM4228 I looked around for a local vendor and found Pace Electronics. I called there and spoke to Jack who said he didn't have any of the CM4228's in stock but recommended a similar Winegard 8800. I asked if I could return it if it didn't work and he agreed (providing it was in the original box and in resaleable condition). I installed the 8800 in my attic, eyeballed it towards 280-degrees west, and have had terrific results picking up WEAR, WKRG, WSRE, WALA (FOX 10), WPMI and WJTC with only the rarest of stuttering.
My equipment is a Windows MCE2005 HTPC with the ATI HDTV Wonder card all connected via DVI to my Toshiba 57" rear-projection TV. I tried my best to get away with spending as little $$ as I could (being the 'CB' that I am), but in the end it was the antenna that made the difference and for less than $60 for the Winegard 8800 I still feel like I didn't spend too much.
If you're interested, I recommend Pace Electronics. Their number is in the phonebook or the online yellow pages, and are located at Old Palafox & 9-1/2 Mile Road--little industrial park there.

I got a chimney mount and will try put the Lacrosse outside. If that doesn't work I'll try either the 4228 or DB4, probably outside. I had wanted to avoid that, but it looks like it simply isn't going to work. I'll just have to put "remove antenna from roof" as #1 on my hurricane prep list.


Well, today's report. The Lacrosse on the roof didn't cut it, still no joy on WALA. In addition, the mounting pole is too fat for a standard chimney mount (and too heavy, as well). So, if anybody in the Pensacola wants a slightly used amplified Lacrosse (free to good home) PM me and its yours, you just have to come pick it up.

So, the next step is another antenna. I'll go with the CM4228, which should be able to pick up everything without amplification. I'll order it today, and get it up next weekend. Hopefully, I will have good news then.

Of course, I hated the outcome of the game, but my OTA reception was just awful. All kinds of stuttering and macroblocking to the point where I swtiched to the Channel 5 non- HDTV feed on D*.

Anybody else have this problem?

I always have that issue with WKRG. It's my only unreliable HD channel.

I'm near the Pensacola airport and WKRG-DT 5[27] is "unreliable" to use the same phrase as 'imdocjoe'. The funny thing is that it is less reliable from the outdoor antenna that I use with my living room HDTV than it is with an indoor antenna used with a smaller "bedroom" set. On the outdoor antenna, signal strength bounces between 0 and 70 for awhile, but then it may settle it at 70 and stay there for days. I tried re-orienting the outdoor yesterday but it didn't help much.

I'm new to the forum and am happy to find one for our area. Anybody else in this Mediacomm service area notice that they are offering CBS, Starz and ESPN 2 in HD beginning on October 1st? That is a great sign. I sure hope they hurry up and offer Fox and ABC. Anyone know details on that?

I'm tired of switching between OTA and cable box depending on what I'm watching.

Rick,

Thanks for the link, it was very helpful. Looks like in order to pick-up Fox I am going to have to buy a Wingard YA-1713 and a UHF/VHF combiner. Do you think this set-up will work? Don't want to spend another $60 on equipment if it will not work.

Tried to get FOX waiver through Directtv but was turned down.


Just an update. Installed the YA-1713 on top of my DB-8 and I now recieve all locals, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and UPN.

I am in east Holley by the Sea, Navarre. :)

WBPG-DT (55-1)

I noticed that the Guide from DirecTV now lists WBPG-DT as channel 55-1 broadcasting as a subchannel on digital channel 9. But, the signal is not there yet (1:30 PM, 9/30/06). Since both WALA and WBPG are co-owned, and WBPG is now the CW network channel, I am not surprised that they plan to go back to the same arrangement that they used earlier. WALA broadcasting on 9-1 (showing up as 10-1) and WBPG on 9-2 (showing up as 55-1 this time rather than 10-2 as it was last year). Right now the schedule says that they are broadcasting college football as is the SD version of WBPG but it is the baseball game instead.

In the past, having the WBPG subchannel as widescreen SD had a bad effect on the HD Fox broadcasting on the main channel and they would turn off the subchannel during important sports events.

WBPG is scheduled for channel 25 when it has to go to digital but so far I've not seen an application for a digital construction permit on the FCC site.

So, for the time being, it looks like they are planning to occasionally broadcast CW programming as widescreen SD on a channel 9 subchannel as 55-1.

So, the next step is another antenna. I'll go with the CM4228, which should be able to pick up everything without amplification. I'll order it today, and get it up next weekend. Hopefully, I will have good news then.

Follow up: I ordered the CM4228, which arrived on Thursday (sligtly bent, but OK, as it turned out). Added another chimney mount for stability, got it up, pointed it generally towards 280, then crossed my fingers.

Success!! :D Pulling in all networks in HD, including Fox. I probably should have just started here, but I did want to avoid having an external antenna.

As to the question about Mediacom and WALA and WEAR. I expect the situation is the same as with Cox cable. If you read some of the earlier posts (you have to wade trough a bunch of posts) you will see that Sinclair is insisting that Cox pay royalties to broadcast the HD version of their signal. Cox (correctly, IMHO) thinks all their are doing is rebroadcasting the local signal (which they must do). This has been going on for several years now, and there is no sign that it will be resolved anytime soon.

Oh, and the offer for the amplified Lacrosse still stands for anybody who wants to come and get it. PM me and its yours, I hate to see it go to waste when somebody may want it.

WBPG-DT (55-1)

I noticed that the Guide from DirecTV now lists WBPG-DT as channel 55-1 broadcasting as a subchannel on digital channel 9. But, the signal is not there yet (1:30 PM, 9/30/06).

After your post, I tuned in 10-2 to find they were broadcasting the same baseball game that was being carried on WALA. The broadcast was in widescreen, but I did not try to discern whether it was in HD. 10-2 has been dark for many months. Could they be gearing up to carry at least some of the CW in widescreen?

I also noticed that channel 55-1 WPBG has the exact same programing as 10-1 WALA even though my Directv H10 guide says different

If you're looking for WALA - FOX on cable in HD - the long and short of it is that the new owners, Lin TV, wants the cable providers to pay to carry the HD feed. After trying to get answers myself on this with no luck - Comcast and WALA both gave me the cold shoulder, I turned to Mike Brantley with the Press Register - he's prepping a story on the issue, so keep an eye out this week for it. Maybe this will pressure WALA/Lin or Comcast to cave and finally get Fox in HD feed on cable.

I posted last week that I had a message on my Mediacom box in Gulf Shores that they were adding WKRG and Starz and ESPN2 in HD on 10/1. Well, yesterday no new HD stations were there. I called and found out that I was not supposed to get that message it was for people in the Theodore area. Gulf Shores isn't getting any new HD stations.

Why am I even suprised?

Thought I would share an Antenna story with everyone as it might help out future installs. I live in SW Pensacola near navy blvd. and W St. (down the hill near bayou chico). I went to pace electronics and Jack suggested a Winegard vhf/uhf combo(with Fox being one of the channels I really wanted). I actually went with a smaller antenna than he suggested just to see if I could get away with it. I bought the winegard 5646(only about 35 bucks). I wanted to try an attic install first to see if I could pull all the locals in before I put the antenna on the roof. Got the antenna in the attic pointed at about 304. Everything came in good with signal strengths in the high 80's to high 90's with CBS being the only channel that had a lower signal strength(anywhere from high 80's to low 60's but still no dropouts) I was happy at this point but since I have a 100ft. coax run I decided to try a pre-amp. I went back to pace and bought a winegard 8800 hoping mainly to tighten up the cbs signal. The preamp did help and now the cbs signal is consistently in the 80's sometimes hitting low 90's. Fox is steady around 87-89 and abc, pbs and nbc are at 95-98. Needless to say I am really pleased that this antenna works being in the attic out of the wind/weather and safer from lightining.
Hopefully this may help somebody looking to install an antenna on my side of town.

I talked to one of the engineers at Wala yesterday and this was his news about the CW.

I called because 55-1 was live but it was showing exactly what fox was showing, (which has been happening for awhile.)

They had absolute no idea 55-1 was even broadcasting, they then saw that it was after aruging with me about it for awhile telling me it wasn't HD, which i knew. Then they saw it online and didn't know why it was showing the same thing as fox. They were going to look into it to get 480i widescreen CW on 55-1 at some point, no idea when.

I asked about CW going HD. They said they plan on building a tower in about a year, then woudl be HD in 1-2 years.


This is Bull... , is there no one we can complain to about this?

IThis is Bull... , is there no one we can complain to about this?

You can "complain" to the owners. Don't watch these Lin owned stations (WALA and/or WBPG)!

Easy to say, hard to do. Kind of like i hate wal mart so i personally never shop there, at least until they provide health care for their workers. It's hard because i spend more money elsewhere, but most people give in and ship there and continue the problem.

I'll stick to the new york feed for fox, then cw for veronica other than that i'll avoid like the plague, though i'm only one person. Maybe directv will pickup the hd feed of the CW like they've been rumored to do nationally.

I'll stick to the new york feed for fox, then cw for veronica other than that i'll avoid like the plague, though i'm only one person. Maybe directv will pickup the hd feed of the CW like they've been rumored to do nationally.

Did all of the WB affiliates wind up as the surviving station with the merger, or did the former UPN affiliate survive in some markets? It's really too bad Channel 44 did not get the CW affiliation. I would think the lower channel number and the ability to broadcast in HD already would have counted for something.

Hope Directv will pick up CW for HD feeds so I can enjoy my Smallville episodes a lot more!

Hi All,

Been awhile since I posted here, but after finding out that D* won't give me waivers for ABC and CBS HD, I went out and bought a mast, rotor, amp/preamp, etc. I already have the antenna.

I'm ready to put it up.

The spot I picked out is going to a few feet in the ground up past the peak of my house. The mast will be mounted to the outside wall with standoffs, from the bottom up to the point where the peak of the house is. My main question is, how much higher can I go above the roofline without guy wires being needed (last spot the mast will be secured is a few inches below the roofline) I am kind of in a valley here in Niceville, so height will probably be real important.

Here are the particulars.

I have four 10 foot sections of 16 guage mast, 1 1/2 inch diameter.

Two of the sections from the ground are almost level with the peak of the house, so, once I sink a few feet of it in the ground with concrete, it will be a few feet below the peak, add another section, it will be roughly 7-8 feet above the roofline, then add a little for the rotor and antenna assembly. I would think this would be ok as is, but would like any info you all might want to add.

Now I assume adding in the last ten foot section (making it 17-18 foot above the peak of the house) would be too wobbly if unsecured, or would it? Any thoughts? Could I go even higher, if secured? What are my limitations here?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

D* does not give nor take away waivers, your locals do that. If I were you I would not spend a lot of money right now because you will get your local HD from D* by years end.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061010006082&newsLang=en

Bruce, remember that you are only covered by the FCC upto 12 feet above the peak. If you go higher you will probably need a permit.

Bob H.

According to a press release today, by Directv, Mobile will be getting HD locals on the dish by the end of the year. It will require the new AT-9 dish and H-20 receiver to recieve them. I have the new receiver and dish, so I'm ready.

D* does not give nor take away waivers, your locals do that. If I were you I would not spend a lot of money right now because you will get your local HD from D* by years end.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061010006082&newsLang=en

This link says Mobile is one of the markets to get local hd programming for NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. What about PBS? Hope we'll be getting that too. I am still skeptical those channels will be up and running by the end of the year, but I hope I am wrong!

I finally set up a VHF antenna today... I don't think it's my setup but I'm not sure. I'm getting a few audio dropouts tonight watching the game on Fox 10-1. They last 5-10 seconds and occur every once in a while (15-20 minutes). Anyone else? It's not a receiver issue (I have 2 identical receivers and they both do it at the same times), but could be a signal issue as the setup is new today.

Just when I was about to order a new antenna, I get word that D* is to have Mobile local's in HD by then end of the year. :)

This link says Mobile is one of the markets to get local hd programming for NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. What about PBS? Hope we'll be getting that too. I am still skeptical those channels will be up and running by the end of the year, but I hope I am wrong!


If we do get locals from D* there is no guarantee we will get all of them. WKRG will want D* to carry ther sub ch: [weather] and thats not going to happen. There are a lot of markets around the country that dont have all of the big 4 for that very reason. I would like to know are the cable co. in Mobile carrying all of the big 4s HD.

And good luck getting PBS-HD on DirecTV. Is it carried in ANY market? That's one of the main reasons I have my antenna farm in the attic.

No dropouts on Fox during baseball all day today. Must have been a broadcast thing--I've had solid reception and at the same signal levels I had last night.

Ok I spoke too soon. The dropouts were there later in the game.

Argh, i moved to a rental home while my house is being built and the antenna reception is terrible. I just can't consistently get cbs and i'm practically under their tower which i think is the problem.

I pull it in around 88-92%. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it freezes up and is like stop action animation. If i move it to reduce the signal i lose abc. I've tried the antennas direct db4 and crossfire, perhaps i should try the db2 or bring it inside??? i think i'll lose abc if i bring it inside which is why i haven't tried it yet. Very annoying, i hate antennas.

For cable i'm not positive but i think NBC is the only channel on Mediacom in baldwin/mobile, while Comcast has NBC and CBS i believe in west mobile. Could be wrong.

I agree on PBS, also very annoyed about the CW. With the merger you'd think they'd have more clout to be considered one of the big networks. Maybe directv will just pick up national pbs and cw...

I would like to know are the cable co. in Mobile carrying all of the big 4s HD.

Comcast in Mobile carries ABC, CBS, NBC - No Fox (and it does carry PBS) in HD

Comcast in Mobile carries ABC, CBS, NBC - No Fox (and it does carry PBS) in HD


Thanks

I have a question, and if this is the wrong place please direct me. I have comcast cable, and channel 233 CBS programming over comcast cable thru my HD DVR is having issues with 5.1 sound from any program which supports or supplies 5.1 sound..like CSI MIAMI...i get distorted sound through the rears. This does not happen with any other stations supporting HD and 5.1, doesn't happen with my OTA signal, and doesn't happen with any DVDs. Just on that Comcast channel. Comcast, of course, has no clue....and really, neither do I. Any Ideas?

thanks
Mike Garver

Mobile Alabama

Theater Grand III Pre-Amp, Processor
Pioneer Elite 910 Pro
Denon 5910 DVD
JVC D-VHS
Moto 6412 STB
OTA antenna

i've heard distorted sound through the rears on cbs and a few other channels (non hd) on comcast in mobile. Not sure why they have this problem. I imagine their messing up their surround feed somehow.

I hear bad weird surrounds on lots of non hd channels with mediacom. Just some really terrible stuff.

If you want one of my guys to check it out and see what it is i'll send one no cost. Then we can go to comcast and bitch that it's affecting our business and let them know we'll start sending people to dish/directv if they don't look at it. Which of course is what we do anyway, but who knows mgith do something.

Daniel

i get distorted sound through the rears. This does not happen with any other stations supporting HD and 5.1, doesn't happen with my OTA signal, and doesn't happen with any DVDs. Just on that Comcast channel. Comcast, of course, has no clue....and really, neither do I. Any Ideas?


I'm not sure why you weren't getting it through OTA because I was getting the pops and crackles through Cox HD on CBS earlier this week. I just figured it was originating from the source. It seemed fine last night, (10/19) though...

Steve

i'm having a terrible time with cbs ota. I get it at 92%. It's perfect now. but every bama game it breaks up and i can't get teh signal at all. then after the game it's fine. then either the unit or jericho breaks up too much and won't lock in so i have to record the non hd channel instead. very frustrating. anyone have any thoughts? could i be getting too much signal? when it breaks up it's like stop action animation

i'm having a terrible time with cbs ota. I get it at 92%. It's perfect now. but every bama game it breaks up and i can't get teh signal at all. then after the game it's fine. then either the unit or jericho breaks up too much and won't lock in so i have to record the non hd channel instead. very frustrating. anyone have any thoughts? could i be getting too much signal? when it breaks up it's like stop action animation

I have the same problem with CBS as well. Seems to be worse during the day than at night. Signal strength for all other channels is great, except for CBS. Here in west Mobile all the locals are within a 10 degree angle for me, but I can't get CBS. I am blaming my antenna.

I was prepared to get a new antenna until D* announced they would have HD locals this year.

I'm just annoyed, everythign else is at 68-72% but solid, cbs is 92% and unpredictable. course nbc is 10% but i have the new york feed so no loss there. still annoying.

i'm ready for hd locals, wish they woudl do pbs and cw though. right now they are having a silent recall of the new hd dvr's because they are buggy and the antenna tuner is broken.

I am looking to buy an indoor HD antenna for a reasonable price. I am interested in the Zenith ZHDTV1, which is only about $20 at Monster.

I live in West Mobile, near Hillcrest and Airport Blv.. I am wondering if this is a good buy. If not, any suggestions? It has to be an indoor antenna though.

Suggestions are appreciated.



L.

Can you put anything in your attic? I'm not sure what to recommend, i've used that zenith in a couple of small applications and it is pretty good for what it is.

If you need help let me know and i'll have one of my guys drop by, they're in west mobile all the time.

Daniel

As a side note to everyone on the thread, i've started a couple of new companies. One sells high end leather theater seats and the other does california style closets. If anyone wants to check them out i'll post my website below. If there are any other local dealers lurking i'm looking for a dealer in mobile to sell these seats to that will do some volume.

Thanks,


www.realtheaterseating.com

www.creative-closet.com

right now they are having a silent recall of the new hd dvr's because they are buggy and the antenna tuner is broken.

That's huge news. I remember getting involved in a long conversation with a Best Buy salesman who was about to pull the trigger and get the new Directv HD DVR. I told him he would not be able to pick up OTA channels with an antenna and he did not believe me. Between the satellite and cable companies, the networks and the local affiliates, I truly wonder whether they are going to wind up destroying the public's acceptance of this new technology.

Here is a site that will tell you every thing you want to know about the HR20. I have two, and the only thing that does not work is OTA, but it is coming soon.

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=112

Here is a site that will tell you every thing you want to know about the HR20. I have two, and the only thing that does not work is OTA, but it is coming soon.

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=112

The ONLY thing that does not work is the OTA? That would take away 90 per cent of the HDTV programs that I watch, and all the HD college football with the exception of ESPN. Even when Directv sees fit to turn the local HD on for this market, apparently neither PBS nor CW will be among the choices.

I currently see no incentive at all to switch from my HR 10-250.

What you are saying is true, but I have atsc tuners in my plasma and lcd for ota. D* gave me one and I got the other one from BB a few months ago. The one I got from BB was actually free because D* gave me free programing to make up the difference.The reason I have HR20s is because I had 4 H20s that died.

the h 20's are a nightmare. They could set a house on fire in my opinion. We just got a customer replaced because they were getting so hot the cards were melting. The new h20's they got were bigger and have a fan on the back. everything else is the same.

Here is a site that will tell you every thing you want to know about the HR20. I have two, and the only thing that does not work is OTA, but it is coming soon.

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=112
Maybe D*****TV wanted the OTA not to work that way you will get your local hd from them. ok my ota isn't working thats ok D**TV has the local in HD now another $5 for D**TV. I can believe they will sale a hd turning that is not working? This looking like someone is getting over.

Maybe D*****TV wanted the OTA not to work that way you will get your local hd from them. ok my ota isn't working thats ok D**TV has the local in HD now another $5 for D**TV. I can believe they will sale a hd turning that is not working? This looking like someone is getting over.

Earl Bonovich said its a software problem and I'm sure he knows. BTW HD locals from D* are free.

I heard from one of the local install guys that when locals go live(sometime in early Dec) that we will get ch 3,5 and 15. Has anyone else heard the same?

I found two HD antennas and I do not know which one to buy.

One of them is Terk Low-Profile Indoor Antenna (TV5) selling at the local Best Buy store for about $50. The other one is the Zenith ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna selling on-line at Amazon for about $20. Or do I have to go with an amplified ant.?

I live in West Mobile, near Hillcrest Rd. and Airport in an apartment (so I have to get an indoor antenna). Any suggestions?????

I also have a question about reception. I went to a website called antennaweb org, where I could type my address and see channels that I may pick up. Are all of those HD? How do I know which ones are??

Thanks for helping guys.



Lucas

The Zenith is the one you want, it also goes by the name "silver sensor" (when sold by Philips or Magnavox or somebody). I'm in Pensacola (north of 9 mile near UWF) and picked up all of the Mobile UHF stations with one of those at ~80% signal according to WatchHDTV. I have only slight improvements with an attic mounted 8-bay Winegard PR-8800 (~90% on most UHF, mid-upper 60% for FOX). Hard to tell what you will get with the Terk, but you're essentially paying for their marketing budget with the extra $30. I think Terk makes a copy of the Zenith but it probably costs more.

On Antennaweb, when you get your color-coded list of stations, there should be a radio button above the list that says "Show Digital Stations Only." Clicking that will give you the stations that broadcast in digital. Not all shows will be in HD (check titantv for listings).

One of my favorite channels to have on is "The Tube" or whatever that is on 3-2, even though it's just SD. Nonstop music videos, sort of like MTV back when they just showed *gasp* _music_videos_!

I use the stealth antenna in the attic. I live in Woodlawn heights and receive all channels very well . I use the amplifier that you can get with it. You can get it all at Lowes.

By the way , mediacom has added Starz HD to their line up in Gulf Breeze, Ch 885.

[QUOTE=Chris Burkart]The Zenith is the one you want, it also goes by the name "silver sensor" (when sold by Philips or Magnavox or somebody). I'm in Pensacola (north of 9 mile near UWF) and picked up all of the Mobile UHF stations with one of those at...QUOTE]

I appreciate the help Chris, I am gonna check the listings at titantv. I know that I will not be picking up everything possible with the Zenith, but I just wanted to know if it was worth paying for more on the other antenna. You definitely helped much.

Just one more question? do you think it is worth getting an amplifier. If so, which one?



Lucas

I am doing fine without an amplifier, even with probably 100' of coax between the antenna and my PC. The only consistently weak channel (60-70% singal) is FOX, but I will probably get a VHF antenna (may even just hook up rabbit ears) to take care of that. Why not try unamplified and wait to see how well the antenna alone works? You can always add an amplifier later.

Does anyone have a clue as to when WALA might start broadcasting Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in HD? I know they've both been available in HD since September, but Fox is still just giving us the 480i digital version.

I had intended to go to their website and ask, but it wanted to force me to register and I didn't feel like going through the hassle just yet.

Does anyone have a clue as to when WALA might start broadcasting Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in HD? I know they've both been available in HD since September, but Fox is still just giving us the 480i digital version.

I had intended to go to their website and ask, but it wanted to force me to register and I didn't feel like going through the hassle just yet.

I don't have an answer, but it is a great question. Query as to whether any of the stations in this market have the equipment to originate HD locally, or to even play it back from a syndicated tape. My guess is they do not, and that viewers are relegated solely to the network broadcasts for HD.

If anyone knows the answer, please speak up!

Totally unusable OTA HD signal tonight. I have plenty of signal 92-95 percent signal, but nothing but still frames and artifacts, and, of course, no sound.

It really sucks to have to watch this game in SD!!

Sorry to hear that, did you recently reconfigure anything? I'm getting both games that are currently running crystal clear in HD over here in Pensacola.

Regarding WKRG, I'm a few miles from the tower and have had an HD TV for a week. I have watched 3-1, 5-1, and 10-1 for at least an hour each.... 5-1 has the strongest signal but occasionally has what I would call "digital static" in both the picture and sound. Watchable but seems like it should be better. I have not noticed this on the other two stations.

Totally unusable OTA HD signal tonight. I have plenty of signal 92-95 percent signal, but nothing but still frames and artifacts, and, of course, no sound.

It really sucks to have to watch this game in SD!!

What receiver are you using?

Are you talking about the Fla.-Ark. game?

I recorded it on the DTV HR10-250 DVR and it plays perfectly, no breakups or missing audio.

J C

What receiver are you using?

Are you talking about the Fla.-Ark. game?

I recorded it on the DTV HR10-250 DVR and it plays perfectly, no breakups or missing audio.

J C

Well, here is my rather strange situation. I have the HR10-250 also, and I have found it to be the culprit. I disconnected my UHF antenna from it during the game(Ark. -Fla), and hooked it directly to the tuner on my monitor, and blip... perfect picture. No artifacts, no nothing. So it would appear that my problem is not caused by WKRG.

Hooked the HR10-250 back up this morning... still no usable picture on WKRG digital, 5.1. All I get are still frames and random noise, and no sound at all. Still get 92-95 per cent signal. I only developed this problem after my machine updated to the 6.3 firmware. I get periodic drop outs that kill the audio for a few seconds, mostly on OTA channels, and I have the problem with WKRG.

There have been all kinds of problems with the 6.3 update, as noted on the various boards. Some cynical people have even suggested that D* did it on purpose to force a quicker migration to their new non- Tivo HD recorder. That won't work for me. If I had to give up the HR10-250, I would have no local HD at all, and that would be unacceptable.

Still, it looks like the new recorder has as many or more problems as the HR10-250.

Well, here is my rather strange situation. I have the HR10-250 also, and I have found it to be the culprit. I disconnected my UHF antenna from it during the game(Ark. -Fla), and hooked it directly to the tuner on my monitor, and blip... perfect picture. No artifacts, no nothing. So it would appear that my problem is not caused by WKRG.
Um, did you try the basic things, like simply having your TIVO rescan for available over-the-air channels? If you haven't, do it. It only takes a couple minutes and it can sometimes make this kind of problem go away.