Thank Steve,

We will see what happens.

Brad

I've made a change, requested by the (new) guy in the corner office. I suspect most of you will like it. However, please forward all of your various phone numbers to me, as I'll send the folks who DON'T like it to all you purists <g>!

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, etc. Engineering

I love that new guy!!

Hey Tom, try the 14:9 like were doing over here. So far, 0 complaints from anyone!

Ken.

Nice change with the aspect ratio, Tom. Now the viewer has the option of watching 4:3 or stretching.

Last evening while watching LOST in HD on WRTV-DT, I did not notice the shimmering problem that we've recently discussed. It was definitely there Monday evening with MNF but not last evening.

Steve

I didn't notice the "shimmering" in Lost either, but I wasn't really looking for it.

Steve

Hey Tom, try the 14:9 like were doing over here. So far, 0 complaints from anyone!

Ken.

Yes, it is a very nice compromise for the 100 or so folks around Terre Haute who actually care. :D

RDSlam deals with the general public on this so maybe he could give some foresight on what Joe Six Pack is looking for at least in the Terre Haute area? I still have doubts many people around here have a clue about HD. It only seems recently the video stores in the area finally display more Widescreen dvds than fool screen.

On the "shimmering" of WRTV HD programming, I have noticed on MNF that for the most part the effect, at least on my OTA reception here, seems to be the strongest when they use the camera that appears to be mounted high in the stadium and is showing a lot of the field. I noticed it briefly last night during Lost, when the picture showed a portion of a rug or something like that, but the rest of the time I did not notice the "shimmering" at all.

It seems to me that there used to be certain patterns that did not show up well on television and I have noticed before on a tie or some other piece of clothing a wavy effect and thought it may be something like that. How's that for a full blown scientific explanation.

There is something definitely causing the "shimmering effect" on WRTV on certain HD broadcasts and it will be interesting to see, in the end, what is causing it and how they fixed it. Until then we will just watch and wait.

coolray

Actually, I may have to find a way to automate the setting of the encoder aspect ratio flag. I find that I cannot stretch the picture at home or at work, in that we're telling the sets that we're sending 16:9, even tho we're really sending 4:3.

Unfortunately, this may not be a simple or inexpensive prospect at all - I'll have to check into it.

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, etc. Engineering

Sorry Ken but us purists :D would still complain. I've never watched a stretch that didn't look wrong. Actually 14:9 is worse then what Tom's old corner guy was doing. At least with a straight stretch from 4:3 to 16:9 I could fix it if I wanted to watch the show bad enough at the cost of down rezzing to 480p. At 14:9 anything I can do looks even worse. :(

I think ABC used a ratio around that for the Indy 500 one year. Ended up watching the cable feed again...

Actually, I may have to find a way to automate the setting of the encoder aspect ratio flag. I find that I cannot stretch the picture at home or at work, in that we're telling the sets that we're sending 16:9, even tho we're really sending 4:3.

Unfortunately, this may not be a simple or inexpensive prospect at all - I'll have to check into it.

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, etc. Engineering

Just out of curiosity, do you have a choice of colors that you can set the "bars"? It took a few seconds to realize that you were broadcasting the gray bars instead of my (Mitsubishi) TV. The next time I get a TV, I will get one that has black bars instead of gray bars.

It's great to be watching such a clear, digital picture on Survivor on WISH-DT, instead of the grainy analog cable channel!

Jeff

Jeff,
Some sets do give you the option. I agree with your preference for black bars with one exception. If the display is CRT based a neutral gray color is less prone to burn in if used in letter or window boxed mode a lot.

And here I thought the shimmering box in the corner of the screen on RTV was a reception issue. I've been seeing it ever since the Philly-Atlanta game on MNF three weeks ago. Like you guys, I've seen it during Lost, and on some static images on the local evening news also. As strange as this sounds, it looks like a SD box in the corner of an HD picture, and overly pixellated like bad satellite reception.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has this problem.

Sorry Ken but us purists :D would still complain. I've never watched a stretch that didn't look wrong. Actually 14:9 is worse then what Tom's old corner guy was doing. At least with a straight stretch from 4:3 to 16:9 I could fix it if I wanted to watch the show bad enough at the cost of down rezzing to 480p. At 14:9 anything I can do looks even worse. :(

I think ABC used a ratio around that for the Indy 500 one year. Ended up watching the cable feed again...

Ken, don't listen to Les ;) .

Les, what they are doing at WTHI looks very good on a 16:9 tv. First understand anything they broadcast in HD (CSI, 2 1/2 Men, King of Queens) is in the proper format and NOT strectched one bit. What Ken is slightly stretching is their SD material like the local news, and syndicated shows like EV Raymond, Entertainment Tonight, etc. Their Hi-def display for Sunday football is fantastic. I do understand wanting OAR and when it comes to movies I'm as anul as the next guy, but it might not be right but I will compromise when it comes to watching Wheel of Fortune (ugh, can't even imagine WOF in HD).

Yeah, that's OK. We have made the change several weeks ago now. There has been fantastic improvments made in regards to equipment. It seems that every week, there is something that looks even better, has better color, you know, more detailed PSIP, that kind of stuff. <BTW, the FCC has mandated EPG, and I have noticed that some DT's dont have it!> It's amazing! We had to replace an upconverter that was only 3 years old. When we swapped systems, WOW, what a difference. I dont know if its noticable at home, but here at the studio, it made a BIG difference. Before the change, we were using the 16:9 aspect because thats about all we could do. We are now tying the 14:9 and seem to be happy with it overall. If the heat gets turned up, we may drop back to 12:9. But for now, it seems to be working for us.

Before the change, we were using the 16:9 aspect because thats about all we could do. We are now tying the 14:9 and seem to be happy with it overall. If the heat gets turned up, we may drop back to 12:9. But for now, it seems to be working for us.

To make sure I'm not missing anything here especially with my lack of technical knowledge. Ken, your network feed for the HD material like CSI as far as I can tell is still shown for 16:9, correct? It appears that way on my set (a 65" widescreen Mits tv).

The current SD material as shown 14:9, has black bars on the sides compared to before when the entire screen was full but people appeared shorter or fatter or longer (the funky stretch look). Previous to the change, I had to change my settings to pillar box or zoom to get the normal look.

Since I am also computer illiterate I'll have to wait till my son gets a break from Purdue and ask him to post some pics for me. I'll try an post pictures of what this looks like because the 14:9 stretch on SD programs looks great. Maybe the overscan helps on this I don't know?

Sorry RWB. :) I've seen 4:3 stretched to 14:9 and it looks wrong to my eyes :eek: . IMHO I prefer to have SD material recorded in 4:3 broadcast as such, black bars and all. And yes I'm using a 16:9 display. It may be that some people are more sensitive then others to this or maybe it's more noticeable on larger screens. The only thing I can say good about 4:3 to 14:9 stretch as opposed to 16:9 stretched is the people don't quite look as short and fat...

Oh, I should mention that I have no objection to Ken leaving his broadcast as it is. I can't receive it here in Indy anyway and it is his station.

BTW I should have mentioned in my earlier post that plasma displays can also suffer from burn in from using black bars. I think most use gray as a default color as a result.

Sorry RWB. :) I think most use gray as a default color as a result.

Locally WTWO and FOX use gray, but of course right now they are useless since they are showing analog only on the DT side so why bother.

WCIA (41.1 / 15.1) out of Champaign, Illinois uses black and if I'm not mistaken WXIN uses black as well.

Les, your right worrying about burn-in. WTIU has always been decent with their opaque PBS/HD symbol but I cringe when they display that bright white/red station ID symbol and it seems they leave it on there longer each time. Wow does that sound like paranoia or what?

To make sure I'm not missing anything here especially with my lack of technical knowledge. Ken, your network feed for the HD material like CSI as far as I can tell is still shown for 16:9, correct? It appears that way on my set (a 65" widescreen Mits tv).

The current SD material as shown 14:9, has black bars on the sides compared to before when the entire screen was full but people appeared shorter or fatter or longer (the funky stretch look). Previous to the change, I had to change my settings to pillar box or zoom to get the normal look.

Since I am also computer illiterate I'll have to wait till my son gets a break from Purdue and ask him to post some pics for me. I'll try an post pictures of what this looks like because the 14:9 stretch on SD programs looks great. Maybe the overscan helps on this I don't know?


Yeah, that's pretty much right on. When CBS offers HD service, we simply pass that. As a side note, CBS-HD is offering both 5.1 and stereo. Our Dolby encoder switches according to the input it receives. So you either get surround, or stereo. CBS has not totally converted all programming to 5.1 yet.
Now when we are not native 1080i, we will upconvert our SD to a 14:9 1080i. In our DT facility , everything is standardized at 1080 (1.5Gbs SDI) due to the nature of our routing equipment. So for the time being, everything on 10.1 is 1080 and around 17Mbs and change... (+audio, +PSIP) So far, we have no other services, so we are using all the bandwidth (19Mbs) for the single feed.
Ken

... WTIU has always been decent with their opaque PBS/HD symbol but I cringe when they display that bright white/red station ID symbol and it seems they leave it on there longer each time. Wow does that sound like paranoia or what?

It's not paranoia when they are out to get you. I don't worry much about it since my PJ is LCD but it's something to keep in mind with any phosphor based technology.

So far, we have no other services, so we are using all the bandwidth (19Mbs) for the single feed.
KenKeep it that way! :)

I do have some choice on the side bars, and I set them to a medium grey to help with the "burn-in" problem that may or may not be an issue (YMMV).

Starting to notice a few more details, like the fact that CBS sends black side bars when they upconvert a non-HD program for the evening. Black bars are probably less noticable, and so you are less distracted when watching a show. Grey bars have a subtle tendency to make the picture seem smaller than it really is on the 16:9 screens, but they help with burn-in. Pick your poison?

We had experimented a long time ago with 14:9, and then about 1/2 the amount of horizontal stretch, in the vertical direction, to help preserve a slightly better sense of perspective. This is tricky because of all the supers, logos, etc. that occur toward the bottom of the screen, and so many people's sets are overscanned, so we even shifted a little bit up to help with that complication.

Tom Weber
Engineering, WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, and more!

Here's an email I received today from Paul at WRTV regarding this issue........


"I power cycled the 720p encoder on Friday morning. Please let me know
if
you are still seeing the error in the lower right hand corner. If it
is
still there, I will try to get in touch with Radyne/Comstream to see if
I
can get it sent in to be repaired. I am hoping that the recycle will
make
it happy again."

p:

Thanks, Paul......................Steve

I do have some choice on the side bars, and I set them to a medium grey to help with the "burn-in" problem that may or may not be an issue (YMMV).

Starting to notice a few more details, like the fact that CBS sends black side bars when they upconvert a non-HD program for the evening. Black bars are probably less noticable, and so you are less distracted when watching a show. Grey bars have a subtle tendency to make the picture seem smaller than it really is on the 16:9 screens, but they help with burn-in. Pick your poison?

We had experimented a long time ago with 14:9, and then about 1/2 the amount of horizontal stretch, in the vertical direction, to help preserve a slightly better sense of perspective. This is tricky because of all the supers, logos, etc. that occur toward the bottom of the screen, and so many people's sets are overscanned, so we even shifted a little bit up to help with that complication.

Tom Weber
Engineering, WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, and more!

Very interesting...

It sounds like you have a very fun job!

Yes, I find black bars to be less distracting from the image than gray bars. I've heard that Comcast will be going all-digital sometime soon, and when that happens I can use the cable box to change the pillar box color on most channels to black.

Cool that Letterman is now in HD as well.

Jeff

Black or grey, it sure as heck beats the big gaudy red HD on ESPNHD.

I've made a change, requested by the (new) guy in the corner office. I suspect most of you will like it. However, please forward all of your various phone numbers to me, as I'll send the folks who DON'T like it to all you purists <g>!

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, etc. EngineeringI appreciate the change as the 4:3 image is much sharper now. I'll even send some feedback on your Web site so they know someone likes it.

Les, your right worrying about burn-in. WTIU has always been decent with their opaque PBS/HD symbol but I cringe when they display that bright white/red station ID symbol and it seems they leave it on there longer each time.I have noticed recently that the on set HDTVs that WNDU TV16 in South Bend has behind their anchors are burned in with the TV16 logo. It is noticable when they put up another logo, such as for sports, if that logo has white space that crosses the burn lines. Every display seems to burn in or at least unproportionately burn out.

JL

I was just typing a post about the Florida/Alabama football game not being in HD on WISH-DT. At 3:09 out of a commercial break the game went to HD. What a difference in PQ.

Steve

Are there any insight users on here that are able to get DD to work with HDMI on recorded programs? Just wondering...I'm have problems.

Anyone have any clue of WNDU leaves those TVs on all the time with the logo on, so thats the reason for burn in?

As one who also asked for pillar-boxing on Channel 8-1, thank you.

As one who also asked for pillar-boxing on Channel 8-1, thank you.

Yes, Thank you, Tom! The picture, with gray bars, looks great! I can now set my set at "wide zoom" and fill out the screen, which looks natural.

Watching the Colts yesterday in HD was great. Sports is the one thing that will continue to drive more people toward the HD bandwagon.

Watching the Colts yesterday in HD was great. Sports is the one thing that will continue to drive more people toward the HD bandwagon.

I agree, I didn't plan on watching that much sports when I went HD...but tell you what I have (the short time that I've had it). I even have been watching NASCAR racing because it looks so amazing.

Whatever the engineer did at WRTV, the shimmering was gone on MNF tonight. Just crisp, clear, beautiful HD. Thanks to whoever sent the e-mail and whoever fixed the problem.

Has anyone noticed a pop and or a sqeel when WTHR swtiches between network HD (delayed) and local fed ads? Last night I noticed it both in Las Vegas and Medium. I was not listening through my surround receiver, only my TV, so I don't know if it was happening on the surround signals or not.

Jim

Sunday, durning the Colts' game, I noticed a fairly pronounced (1 second or so) "mute" or dead time between the normal game (in 5.1) and the network updates, where they switch to highlights of other games (in stereo). Is this mainly a function of how fast or slow my receiver switches? It's not a "top of the line" by any means.

Thanks, Tom, for all you do to keep the DTV viewers "in the know".

Ken

Ken, my receiver does that also, it's pretty annoying, and all that it would take for the networks to fix is always broadcast in the same formats.

Tom, is there anyway on your end to always output the audio in the same format regardless of what is sent to you? Say, always have it output as 5.1?

RWB,

Sorry for the slow reply. Here in my store, if I talk to them they know the difference. Sunday we had the Colts on in HD, and today we had espn analog and ESPNHD side by side on two different Plasma's. The lack of local broad stations has hurt some. The guys were out in a tent last week watching 36.1 & 39.1 (WTWO, WBAK) Digital sights.....by the way this is 480I Digital not Analog. I never use the "D" word it is either Analog or HD...and they were impressed with the difference between the analog and HD Tuner.

As for HDTV Sales you would be surprised by the numbers. My tv wall used to be tub tv's. Now 1/3 is tube tv's the other 2/3rds are flatpanel LCD. We sell an average of a Plasma a day, where 2 years ago a plasma every 3 months. Last month we delivered 133 HDTV sets here in the Terre Haute area last month. Competition is selling some too....but I let them get as few deals as I can.

People are making the change, I refer many people to this forum so that they can gain the knowledge to make the right purchase decision for them. I myself have a 65 Mits Diamond series in my living room and just hung a Panasonic ED Plasma in my bedroom. I have HD from OTA antenna, Insight Cable, and Dir#@% Tv.

Wthi has been surprised to learn that I can pickup their signal in Spencer and they are in now way close to a full power transmit signal.

I refer all I can to antenna's, and Satellite. Time Wariner in Terre Haute has been a challenge, but I support the change to HD for the technology, and yes because it pays my bills.

Slam, thanks for the info as that is very encouraging to hear. Of personal interest to you I thought you might like to hear I've heard very complimentary things about you and your staff from some folks who have been looking to upgrade. They appreciated a staff who actually know the difference and explain what they should be looking for compared to (CC and that department chain in the mall). Not sure if you're allowed to say who you work for on here, but you deserve a plug so anyone in the Haute area should visit that store with two HHs. ;)

Was a good night for channel surfing last night. Picked up WPTD (PBS) out of Dayton, Ohio at approximately 198 miles. As soon as this cold front moves thru there goes the fun.

Yeah, that's pretty much right on. When CBS offers HD service, we simply pass that. As a side note, CBS-HD is offering both 5.1 and stereo. Our Dolby encoder switches according to the input it receives. So you either get surround, or stereo. CBS has not totally converted all programming to 5.1 yet.
Now when we are not native 1080i, we will upconvert our SD to a 14:9 1080i. In our DT facility , everything is standardized at 1080 (1.5Gbs SDI) due to the nature of our routing equipment. So for the time being, everything on 10.1 is 1080 and around 17Mbs and change... (+audio, +PSIP) So far, we have no other services, so we are using all the bandwidth (19Mbs) for the single feed.
Ken


Any idea why I get constant 'micro-dropouts' on the sound from WISH via my Comcast digital cable? It is very irritating, and seems to be a big problem on the HD channel for CBS in Indy.

Does anyone know if WTHR in INDY is running a lower power level now. I am testing a new antenna at a new location here in West Lafayette and find that I can receive channels 21, 25, and 45 at indicated levels of 60, 85, and 80 respectively, but WTHR on channel 46 indicates a level rarely above 10.

"Does anyone know if WTHR in INDY is running a lower power level now. I am testing a new antenna at a new location here in West Lafayette and find that I can receive channels 21, 25, and 45 at indicated levels of 60, 85, and 80 respectively, but WTHR on channel 46 indicates a level rarely above 10."

I'm watching the NASCAR race in HD on WTHR (ch 46.1/ 13.1) and it's coming in at a normal "78" (Sat. afternoon @ 3:30PM) I'm north of Marion. For reference, WRTV 6.1/25.3 is coming in at a normal-for-me "81", so not much difference.

I'm using a Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna and a Winegard ProStar 1000 10 Element VHF BroadBand Ch. 7-13 Yagi #YA713 antenna with a Channel Master 7777 amp on a 25' mast. It's 56.6 air miles from me to Indy towers. It looks like Lafayette is about 50 air miles.

"Does anyone know if WTHR in INDY is running a lower power level now. I am testing a new antenna at a new location here in West Lafayette and find that I can receive channels 21, 25, and 45 at indicated levels of 60, 85, and 80 respectively, but WTHR on channel 46 indicates a level rarely above 10."

I'm watching the NASCAR race in HD on WTHR (ch 46.1/ 13.1) and it's coming in at a normal "78" (Sat. afternoon @ 3:30PM) I'm north of Marion. For reference, WRTV 6.1/25.3 is coming in at a normal-for-me "81", so not much difference.

I'm using a Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna and a Winegard ProStar 1000 10 Element VHF BroadBand Ch. 7-13 Yagi #YA713 antenna with a Channel Master 7777 amp on a 25' mast. It's 56.6 air miles from me to Indy towers. It looks like Lafayette is about 50 air miles.

Thanks for the details of reception of WTHR at your location. I obviously have some detective work to do here.

I recently moved to this location in West Lafayette from a location just about 8 miles due west of here. So I am still at the same distance from Indy as before and I had no trouble with channel 46 at the previous location. Channel 25, 45, and 46 all came in at about the same strength, 75+.

Here at the new location in town I am trying to be a bit more discrete with antennas, and am now trying a Winegard Square Shooter (the amplified version) mounted on the outside of the house up about 20 feet. It seems to perform surprisingly well on all but the one channel.

So, don't know if it just a dead spot for that channel, some local interference, or a problem with the antenna. It is very interesting that the Square Shooter brings in WXIN on channel 45 just fine (70+). Oh well, messing with antennas is, and has always been, a black art.

I have a CM 4228 and a CM 7777 on order and will try that next.

steelejohn,
Your right about the blackart with antennas. Given that you get good reception on the other Indy stations which are (I think) all pretty much in the same antenna farms you might try just moving your current antenna around before spending a bunch of money on different ones. Sometimes a small move in altitude, location or orientation makes a world of difference. www.anntenaweb.org can tell you if WTHR is on the same azimuth as the others which matters if that antenna is directional.

As for me I'm getting WTHR at 90% on the West side with a small 2 bay bow tie antenna in the attic. I'm around 20 miles from most of the transmitters.

Hope this helps a bit.

Was ABC's college football and the golf on Sunday (Tiger Woods/John Daly) supposed to be in high definition? I have Insight, and both were very disappointing. It never ceases to amaze me how much better pretty much any sporting event looks on ESPN over ABC despite their common ownership, and I don't know what the deal was with golf, I didn't watch too much of it, in part because it just looked awful--nothing like when they are showing golf on Sundays at HH Gregg.

Finally, what is the deal with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? I'm not a regular watcher but it seems as if every time I happen upon it on the HD channels it's 4:3, not 16:9.

I can't think of any reality show that is in high definition, so that's probably why it's 4:3.

Back from vacation....

We're putting in next year's capital budget for the equipment to "properly" decode and use the metadata that CBS sends. (We're accomplishing it another way right now.) I'm not hearing the dropouts that some are reporting, while watching OTA at my house. There is sometimes a small crackle, but not as loud or severe as some "other" stations when going between network HD and local commercials <g>. (Make that a relieved <g>). I hear only a smooth transition between the HD games and the NY inserts of score updates, tho I do see my audio gear change modes.

Once we get the equipment in, we'll start to see about keeping the signal consistent. Right now, I know, if we're in 5.1 but broadcasting only a stereo signal out of our studio, it's really hollow, with a slight echo to it - if we do an actual "upconversion" to 5.1, that may sound better. We'll just have to experiment and see.

Tom Weber
Engineering, LIN Indianapolis Hub
WISH / WNDY / WIIH / LWS, and more!

the golf on Sunday (Tiger Woods/John Daly) supposed to be in high definition? .

It was not in HD on the Champaign, Illinois station as well.

Since it is a rant day sometimes you just can't win. Since cooler weather has hit I'm having a major multipath problem with the only local HD channel (WHTI) in Terre Haute. Before I thought maybe a new Square Shooter would take care of the problem but now it definitely is my receiver. Keep waiting to see if any new generation boxes are to come out, but not holding my breath.

Hey Tom, you using the new Harris HD receiver from CBS? We have ours, and it appears to working well into our Evertz De-Embedder then to a Dolby AES encoder. We have not noticed any problems. BTW, WTHI-DT was only 480 over the weekend due to some upconverter problems! All back to normal <with fingers crossed!>

I would also like to say thanks Tom!!!
For displaying 4:3 SD upconverts as 4:3 instead of zoomed and stretched to fit a 16:9 display. I was having trouble with the picture rolling or going black on my Accurian STB with the stretch-o-vission on 4:3 SD upconverts. Luckily though not as bad as with WTHR.
Any way we can convince WTHR to do the same as WISH on their 4:3 SD upconverts? WTHR is completely unwatchable on my Accurian STB,except for true HD.


Edit: The upconvert from WTHR either causes the picture to roll or alternate from a picture and a black screen.

I just moved to Terre Haute this weekend and I was surprised that only WTHI is HD of the big 4. I also used an indoor antenna that gave me a signal strength of 100 in the last city I was at, yet I only get 51 here with breakups tonight. Is the station at full power now, or were there problems with whatever happened this weekend? I wish it was carried by TWC so I didn't need to do the OTA thing. This move will have to be temporary if there are no other local HD channels. :D

Hi ken, i would like to report some problems with wthi-dt. For some reason there is always audio lag on the local news and sometimes on regular programs. Like with ghost whisper 2 weeks ago it was about 3 seconds behind. Just letting you know thanks for all the effort your making.

Hi ken, i would like to report some problems with wthi-dt. For some reason there is always audio lag on the local news and sometimes on regular programs. Like with ghost whisper 2 weeks ago it was about 3 seconds behind. Just letting you know thanks for all the effort your making.


We have noticed a problem somewhere in our Tandberg encoder. Still trying to figure this one out. This problem only appears occasionally, and can be cured by changing our input format to the main stream encoder to SD-SDI, then back to HD-SDI.

Also, we are currently running low power <we have always been at low power since sign on 10/02 at 1000 watts at 500 feet downtown T.H.>. Soon, I mean very soon <before the end of the year>, we will be increasing power and altitude. More deatils later, but get ready to turn your antenna to Farmersburg!

, but get ready to turn your antenna to Farmersburg!

Might be some very good news for me then as this may buy me some extra time in putting off another STB purchase. Seems FOX and TWO come in fine, but I get the major break up as WTIU in Bloomington (30.1) and WTHI (24.1) in Terre Haute compete with each other on my OLDER Samsung 151 box.

Hey Tom, you using the new Harris HD receiver from CBS? We have ours, and it appears to working well into our Evertz De-Embedder then to a Dolby AES encoder. We have not noticed any problems. BTW, WTHI-DT was only 480 over the weekend due to some upconverter problems! All back to normal <with fingers crossed!>

I was just getting ready to post a rant about how the Colts were in HD but not here in town.

Do me a favor, and work the weekend so the Colts will be in HD! I dont watch CBS for anything else. :)

Did anybody else notice audio drop outs on MNF last night. It seemed to occur about every 5 minutes over the entire telecast. I did not actually get a stopwatch and time the interval, but using my watch it was glitch and then 5 minutes later glitch and then 5 minutes again and again until the game was over. I noticed on my audio reciever that it was changing from 5.1 to another setting and then back to 5.1 or what ever they were broadcasting. I went to bed and did not watch the news to see if it continued, and I very seldom watch WRTV anyway, but was wondering if anyone else was having this problem.

coolray

Noticed for the first time last night WTIU (30.1) has a third sub-channel. TIU2 (30.3). Had to have went live in the last couple of days. Didn't watch too much of it, but with only a glance it appears to be some type of learning channel.

coolray,

I saw the same audio drop outs with an occassional pixelization. I have a Dishnetwork DP921 with digital OTA. In the DBStalk newsgroups, users complain that is is the receiver's fault. Our observations disprove that.

I just noticed that WLFI-DT 11 (18.1) is back in business with HD. The New England/Pittsburgh game looks good.

Religious broadcaster (TBN), WCLJ-DT 56 (42.1), Bloomington/Indianapolis recently raised its power and is now sending a strong signal over the Indy metro area from its tower in Trafalgar, next to the WTTV tower.

Steve

It didn't take WCLJ-DT very long to begin sending out four individual digital signals once they ramped up their signal. The sound isn't right on the third one (JCTV), but the fourth one is going to be very much appreciated by Spanish speaking Christians. I think they have done a very good job of sending out four clear video signals. If I owned a TV station, I'd probably be forced by economics to send out four "channels" and forget HDTV. As much as I love HDTV, I hate to say that, but I'd almost bet that's where we're headed.

I am located in Olney, Illinois, about 50 air miles from Terre Haute. Directv says I have a Grade B contour signal regarding WTHI-DT and WTWO-DT. From what I am reading here that does not seem to be valid. Can anyone give me a general mileage reach for the digital signals of those two stations?
Thank you.

Dennis Sivert
Olney, Illinois

Dennis,

DirecTV may say you are within WTHI-TV and WTWO-TV Grade B

but there is no such thing as Grade B for WTHI-DT and WTWO-DT

(now called "41 dBu Service Contour" for DTV stations)

and besides DirecTV doesn't carry their DTV signals.

FCC website says WTHI's DTV signal is on ch. 24 with 4.3 kilowatts ERP and antenna HAAT 130-meters and includes this predicted service contour:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS612604.html

and this same applies to WTWO-DT on ch. 36 @ 1.92 kW ERP & 268-m HAAT

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS626774.html

and FCC contour predictions are based upon suitable outdoor antenna system.

I'm getting ready to unfortunately move to a Brighthouse service area. Does anyone have any info on whether there are plans to ever carry WRTV-HD on Brighthouse? I'm sure I'm dreaming if I ever thought they would replace their sad little DVR with a TiVo like but the least they could do is offer a complete lineup of network HD.

I'm getting ready to unfortunately move to a Brighthouse service area. Does anyone have any info on whether there are plans to ever carry WRTV-HD on Brighthouse? I'm sure I'm dreaming if I ever thought they would replace their sad little DVR with a TiVo like but the least they could do is offer a complete lineup of network HD.

Earlier this year, WRTV and Bright House were holding meetings to attempt to work out their issues, but obviously things have not been resolved. Also with Bright House, you'll lack HD feeds from WXIN-DT, WTTV/WTTK-DT, and WNDY-DT. You'll need an OTA STB for these stations.

Steve

I am located in Olney, Illinois, about 50 air miles from Terre Haute. Directv says I have a Grade B contour signal regarding WTHI-DT and WTWO-DT. From what I am reading here that does not seem to be valid. Can anyone give me a general mileage reach for the digital signals of those two stations?
Thank you.

Dennis Sivert
Olney, Illinois

Hey Dennis, from Olney, you may have a bit of trouble getting WTHI-DT. Currently, WTHI-DT is operating from the studio tower downtown. This is not entirely bad because in the next couple of days <After the weekend (sports)> we are going to be moving our transmitter to Farmersburg. This will get the signal almost 20 miles closer and with an increase of altitude and power! Not sure of the status of WTWO-DT, or WFXW-DT. At last conversation with the Chief over there, they were running the currently licensed values. In either case, you will probably want/need to have a decent outdoor antenna and pre-amp system. I have an antenna/pre-amp system here in Clay Co., In and can pickup WSIU/WUSI-DT just fine here! I think they are full power though. And as far as I know, there are no satellite services carrying the Terre Haute DT signals.

Ken-

Why for the second weekend in a row, were the CBS NFL football games not broadcast in HD? I saw that the college game on Saturday was.

FWIW, this site usually has fairly accurate information about which games are in HD.

http://www.hdsportsguide.com/

Steve

Thanks for the guide. I know it was covered in HD by CBS because the highlights on ESPN PrimeTime were in HD.

Thanks for the guide. I know it was covered in HD by CBS because the highlights on ESPN PrimeTime were in HD.

Ken had mentioned they were in the process of moving to their main towers so maybe that had something to do with it? Letterman was in HD Friday night, but as Raso pointed out something different going on Sunday. Even the current 14:9 they were using for SD was no longer present.

Ken-

Why for the second weekend in a row, were the CBS NFL football games not broadcast in HD? I saw that the college game on Saturday was.

I'm as frustrated as you are. I dont get paid when I get called in for this stuff. Looks like a failure in the digital rack. I had to switch to a backup SD distribution signal early Saturday afternoon. I dont think any games were carried in HD from us this weekend. We are working on trying to get redunant equipment. But with still very few viewers, it's hard to get the $$$.

On a side note; today <Monday> we have switched our Transmitter site to Farmersburg. We lit up the new site about 4PM today. A few bugs to work out, but by the end of the week, should be at our new intermediate power level. Should be noticable!
Ken.

Ken, we do appreciate all the effort you put into it. Gentlemen like you and Tom Weber could very easily avoid us HD nerds altogether. With RSlam's help at his local store viewership should go up everyday as people actually get to see what HD is all about at least in the Haute area.

But with still very few viewers, it's hard to get the $$$.
Ken.
I just moved to the area and am a new viewer. Does that get you the money? :D

Ken, we do appreciate all the effort you put into it. Gentlemen like you and Tom Weber could very easily avoid us HD nerds altogether. With RSlam's help at his local store viewership should go up everyday as people actually get to see what HD is all about at least in the Haute area.

I just got digital 24 for the first time this morning (9:00 AM Tuesday, tower is in Bloomington Indiana!) My antenna is 45 miles away from your new tower (according to DeLorme Street Atlas USA) and outside of the 41dB area according to the FCC. In addition, my line of sight goes through a giant power line.
I get eight bars and the picture is sharper than channel 6's digital signal. I think it relates to the stretching issue discussed before in this forum.
The colors seemed a bit green on my set (a green Stevie Wonder?), and the black bar to the left side of the screen seemed quite a bit wider than the bar on the right.
For me, the sharpness overrides the color and line issues. And as I continue to watch WTHI, it seems Regis and Kelly seem to be more green than anybody else.....
Anyway, finding another rock solid digital signal always brings goosebumps.
Congratulations Ken! :)
I ditto the appreciation for the three men listed above. RSlam sold me my first HDTV when he was here in Bloomigton. His enthusiasm and knowledge will continue to make his boss a very happy man and will help HDTV make inroads.
Ken and Tom let me feel as if I'm getting super secret insider info. How else would I have known to try digital 24?
Thanks to all three of you, and to all of the informative members of this forum.
Nat Hill IV

But with still very few viewers, it's hard to get the $$$.


Ken, with WTHI being the only local in Terre Haute showing HD maybe that could help your sales people with selling ad time. :)

Count another viewer here!
I broke down Sunday and bought a Motorola HDT101 receiver for my Panasonic HDTV...
Messed around a lot with various antenna configurations (outdoor, indoor)... never got any HD from anyone.. SD signal from channels 2 & 38...
Monday had an awesome signal from 10 in the evening (verifying that in fact you have relocated the transmission site), however.. no HD only SD.
Nothing from 10 today (Tuesday).
So far, I've yet to see a High-def picture from ANYONE!!!

I'm about 4 miles from the towers in Farmersburg.. I live in Pimento... anyone live by here getting HD from a station (anywhere)???

I'm gathering that in spite of Channel 2/38 broadcasting in Digital, they aren't doing HD yet. Is this true? Did I waste my money on the receiver?

BTW... great forum and some really decent comments.
Obviously, I'm a newbie here.

Darney, you might try 30.1 (WTIU PBS HD) out of Bloomington. If you're using an outdoor antenna I think you'll have good luck there.

Darney, you might try 30.1 (WTIU PBS HD) out of Bloomington. If you're using an outdoor antenna I think you'll have good luck there.

Thank you.. I played around with my outdoor antenna.. pointed it towards Bloomington... I get WTIU (all 3 channels).. WTHI HD is back up and looks great.. found a couple of others when I changed antenna directions.
Looks like everything is fine... now to get 2/38 to start broadcasting in HD!!

This is a great forum!

now to get 2/38 to start broadcasting in HD!!That, my friend is quite an uphill battle. Nexstar, the company that owns a and 38, seem to be convinced that Terre Haute is too small of a market to ever invest in HD equipment. Since you are new to the forum, please tell your friends and family to start writing to Nexstar's headquarters in Dallas, asking them to upgrade to HD. We need more numbers to make an impact. :)

Do you have the contact info?

Nexstar Broadcasting
909 Lake Carolyn Parkway
Suite #1450
Irving, TX 75039

Phone: (972) 373-8800

That, my friend is quite an uphill battle. Nexstar, the company that owns a and 38, seem to be convinced that Terre Haute is too small of a market to ever invest in HD equipment. Since you are new to the forum, please tell your friends and family to start writing to Nexstar's headquarters in Dallas, asking them to upgrade to HD. We need more numbers to make an impact. :)

Another thought for those of us who live in the Wabash Valley is try and start a discussion on this using the Terre Haute Tribune's on-line forums. Maybe if the paper got interested they might do a story? You never know. By the way how many people in here actually can receive WTWO or FOX38?

I'll start....RWB receives 10, 2, 38 and their DT counterparts.

I can get them out toward Riley.

Doesn't hurt to talk to the paper about it. The Tribune Star has been looking a little thin lately... they could use the story

I live in Muncie, In and im just now getting an antenna up for local Indy stations in hd and he said he's bringing out a channel master 3679 that should work fine. Does anyone know if this will work in my area? The channels I care about are wish-tv, wxin, wrtv and wthr. Anything extra is a bonus but not a big deal This will be his second antenna and im hoping this one works.

It will have an amp on it but no rotor.

Well, been a really busy week here. We have, as you all know by now, have moved to our Farmersburg facility on Monday. We have been batteling several problems but looks like we are getting "head above water" as of Friday. A little bit of a correction issue yet to be worked out. (This is in the unit that creates the 8 VSB modulation for transmission to you.) Should be good to go by Monday. Some weekend work will be in progress. May need to take the DT transmitter off the air a few times during the repairs. Also, hopefully, we will have some HD for you this weekend as well.

It would be real interesting to see what kind of range we are getting with the new system in place. If you care to report, and if you can include some numbers, it would be nice to get signal strength and signal-to-noise numbers.

Thanks for all your understanding during all this. MORE LATER.....

Ken.

Well, been a really busy week here. We have, as you all know by now, have moved to our Farmersburg facility on Monday. We have been batteling several problems but looks like we are getting "head above water" as of Friday. A little bit of a correction issue yet to be worked out. (This is in the unit that creates the 8 VSB modulation for transmission to you.) Should be good to go by Monday. Some weekend work will be in progress. May need to take the DT transmitter off the air a few times during the repairs. Also, hopefully, we will have some HD for you this weekend as well.

It would be real interesting to see what kind of range we are getting with the new system in place. If you care to report, and if you can include some numbers, it would be nice to get signal strength and signal-to-noise numbers.

Thanks for all your understanding during all this. MORE LATER.....

Ken.

Ken;
Bloomington, IN. 40 miles from your tower. Signal is "eight bars" on my SIR-T351.
The Samsung signal meter isn't worth much, but eight bars is equal to what I get from the Indy stations.
Great work (and great picture - I like the "not quite wide-screen" ratio - sharper picture than Indy's channel 6's digital signal)
Nat Hill IV

Bents

I would be interested in discussing you antenna situation as I to live at Selma, which as you know is near Muncie. What sort of amp are you putting up and is your antenna going to be inside or outside. Also, what was the antenna type that he put up first. I am thinking about upgrading to a different antenna so I will be interested in what you had and how it worked and what you are now getting and how it is working and also whether you are on a tower outside or what ever is the method of mounting the antenna.

Thanks
coolray

Was WTHR-DT having problems this week? I came home from vacation to find that my recorded episodes of The Office and My Name is Earl were both in zoomed SD.

Newbie over here in East Central Illinois. Ken, I am about 50 miles from WTHI's tower. Signal is "four bars" on my SIR-T351. Most of the time it comes in. I have to have my antenna pointed more toward Terre Haute than Farmersburg, though. Thanks for the CBS signal since WCIA in Champaign are waiting for hell to freeze over before they install HDTV equipment. Keep up the good work.

Bents

I would be interested in discussing you antenna situation as I to live at Selma, which as you know is near Muncie. What sort of amp are you putting up and is your antenna going to be inside or outside. Also, what was the antenna type that he put up first. I am thinking about upgrading to a different antenna so I will be interested in what you had and how it worked and what you are now getting and how it is working and also whether you are on a tower outside or what ever is the method of mounting the antenna.

Thanks
coolray
I have mine on a regular TV tower outside my house but I have no idea what kind of amp is up there mainly because I had a guy come out and do it for me. The antenna thats up there right now doesnt receive VHF so hes taking it down and replacing it with a channel master 3679 so that I can get Wish-TV as well. Right now I am only getting 6, 11 and 13 but that should change when he brings the new antenna.

I have no rotor because I dont really need or want the other cities locals. I should point out that I do get other channels (13 others) but they arent anything ive watched.

The Notre Dame and World Series look good in HD and im hoping Comcast will hurry up and release their HD service because im sick of waiting.

Im still hoping someone can chime in with advice on the channel master 3679 antenna. Im about 45 to 50 miles from the towers and right now the cheap one up there gets the locals and they look ok but I dont want to worry about replacing this one.

Newbie over here in East Central Illinois. Ken, I am about 50 miles from WTHI's tower. Signal is "four bars" on my SIR-T351. Most of the time it comes in. I have to have my antenna pointed more toward Terre Haute than Farmersburg, though. Thanks for the CBS signal since WCIA in Champaign are waiting for hell to freeze over before they install HDTV equipment. Keep up the good work.


Thanks for the info. I am getting the signal about 70 on this STB which is in the middle of the yellow scale. S/N is running about 20dB though. Not real great, but getting a steady pix!
Ken.

bents

I am sorry that I have no personal information of what the reception quality should or should not be on the Channel Master 3679, but I would sure be interested to hear your report on what you do or do not get after he installs the new antenna. Do you have any idea how high the existing tower is ?. I do know that if I was putting up a new antenna I would include a Channel Master 7777 pre amp mounted at the antenna. I can not get access to my attic antenna now to add one to that, so I will have to wait until I try a new antenna in a different location. I do get WRTV 6-1 and WISH 8-1 and WTHR 13-1 and WNDY 23-1 and WXIN 59-1, but I can not get WTTK- 29-1 or WFYI 20-1. We should be able to get WLBC 49-1 here pretty soon when they do finally go online with the new equipment.

coolray

I'm in Bloomington with Insight Cable & the HDTV pack, is anyone else getting the Colts v. Houston game in 4:3 on the high-definition channel?

I'm in Bloomington with Insight Cable & the HDTV pack, is anyone else getting the Colts v. Houston game in 4:3 on the high-definition channel?
It looks like good news, bad news. Good news that WISH has decided to stop the "stretch-o-vision" on their SD conversions (thanks, Tom), but bad news that evidently CBS doesn't think the best team in the NFL versus the worst team in the NFL merits HD :( .

bents

I am sorry that I have no personal information of what the reception quality should or should not be on the Channel Master 3679, but I would sure be interested to hear your report on what you do or do not get after he installs the new antenna. Do you have any idea how high the existing tower is ?. I do know that if I was putting up a new antenna I would include a Channel Master 7777 pre amp mounted at the antenna. I can not get access to my attic antenna now to add one to that, so I will have to wait until I try a new antenna in a different location. I do get WRTV 6-1 and WISH 8-1 and WTHR 13-1 and WNDY 23-1 and WXIN 59-1, but I can not get WTTK- 29-1 or WFYI 20-1. We should be able to get WLBC 49-1 here pretty soon when they do finally go online with the new equipment.

coolray

I dont know how high my tower is but its been there for thirty years so its nothing special. Im sure there is a standard but I dont know what that is.

I get wttk and and wfyi but its a weak signal. What type of antenna and pre amp do you have? Do you have a rotor?

Was WTHR-DT having problems this week? I came home from vacation to find that my recorded episodes of The Office and My Name is Earl were both in zoomed SD.

YAY! Someone else in the world watches The Office!! :) I have to say, this week's show was one of the funniest half hours of TV I can remember in a long time.

And yes, it was in some kind of SD mode for me too (Comcast, Indianapolis), so the folks at WTHR probably forgot to flip a switch. West Wing was fine last Sunday, as was ER on Thursday.

bents

I have a Radio Shack VU-160 XR and a rotor and they are mounted in my attic. The antenna is a long range UHF-VHF-FM model. When I built my new home at the reservoir I installed that antenna to make sure I could at least get something to watch when the satellite was down and I had never given a thought about using it for OTA HighDef signal reception. I did not add a pre-amp to it when I installed it and now there is no way I can get back to where it is mounted to install one now. I think a person would be wise to install a VHF-UHF combo antenna, as down the road, I think at least 2 Indy stations are going to use their VHF number instead of their UHF number. Right now WISH is the only channel using a VHF number [2 through 13]. Their number right now is channel 9.

Let me know how your new setup works
coolray

bents

I have a Radio Shack VU-160 XR and a rotor and they are mounted in my attic. The antenna is a long range UHF-VHF-FM model. When I built my new home at the reservoir I installed that antenna to make sure I could at least get something to watch when the satellite was down and I had never given a thought about using it for OTA HighDef signal reception. I did not add a pre-amp to it when I installed it and now there is no way I can get back to where it is mounted to install one now. I think a person would be wise to install a VHF-UHF combo antenna, as down the road, I think at least 2 Indy stations are going to use their VHF number instead of their UHF number. Right now WISH is the only channel using a VHF number [2 through 13]. Their number right now is channel 9.

Let me know how your new setup works
coolray

He is supposed to come back Monday or Tuesday and the reason he has to replace the antenna is because the the one up there does not get VHF and I wasnt getting WISH. You would think that he would know these kinds of things but I guess not. The one he wants to put up next is rated at 50 and 60 miles so we will see what happens.

Do you use Dish or DirecTV and do you lose your signal a lot?

YAY! Someone else in the world watches The Office!! :) I have to say, this week's show was one of the funniest half hours of TV I can remember in a long time.

And yes, it was in some kind of SD mode for me too (Comcast, Indianapolis), so the folks at WTHR probably forgot to flip a switch. West Wing was fine last Sunday, as was ER on Thursday.

OK, good to know it wasn't a problem with my Tivo recording the wrong channel. The Office was good this week, but my favorite is still the Dundies episode. They've all been great so far this season.

bents

I have Direct TV and in my opinion I do not lose my signal from them very often. Sometimes when I have a really driving rain storm I will lose the signal but not too often. But that is the beauty of having an OTA antenna because I watch most of my HD tv over the air instead of satellite. My elevation out here is 1,015 feet above sea level and then my antenna is about 20 feet off of the ground, but I do have a lot of trees on my homesite, but all in all it seems to work pretty well most of the time. Look forward to hearing how your reception improves when you get the new gear up.

coolray

Bents,

I also live in the Muncie area and using an antenna to pick up local HD's. I'm using the Channel Master 3671 Crossfire and a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp. My antenna is up around 35 feet or so. I live a few miles North of town and I pull in 6,8,13,59 digital stations at this location with this setup. WISH is by far my worst station, however, and my overall signal quality is 20 points or so lower than the rest of them. I'm not sure what your results will be, but I'm guessing I would have problems pulling in WISH with that antenna. You might have to go bigger. However, if you're further South or West, you might be just fine.

I am in an apartment on the east side of Terre Haute. I was getting a max of 51 with WTHI, but with the switch I now have 100. Unfortunately, I lost HD right before Two and a Half Men tonight.

Does anyone else get ridiculous popping and ticking on abc 6-1? I have ALWAYS had this problem when first changing to the channel, and occasionally in the middle of viewing. The picture will hold just fine, but ticking will continue sometimes for 5 seconds, up to 30-40 seconds at times. Of course I have the aweful DTC-100 tuner built into my F38310 tv which is not capable of pulling in a signal higher than 55!

Does anyone else get ridiculous popping and ticking on abc 6-1? I have ALWAYS had this problem when first changing to the channel, and occasionally in the middle of viewing. The picture will hold just fine, but ticking will continue sometimes for 5 seconds, up to 30-40 seconds at times. Of course I have the aweful DTC-100 tuner built into my F38310 tv which is not capable of pulling in a signal higher than 55!

Haven't had that problem since I retired the DTC-100 about two years ago.A newer receiver will cure the problem.

My reception on 6-1 has been horrible recently. I get the ticking and popping at least 3-4 times an hour. My recording of Desperate Housewives on Sunday was pretty much unwatchable. 6-1 is the only one that does this. I have DirecTV with a HR10-250, and I live in Westfield (less than 10 miles from the towers). When I look at the reception on my TiVo channel 6 is the strongest signal. I get 8, 13, and 59 without this problem. Has anyone else been having trouble with the ABC OTA feed?

My reception on 6-1 has been horrible recently. I get the ticking and popping at least 3-4 times an hour. My recording of Desperate Housewives on Sunday was pretty much unwatchable. 6-1 is the only one that does this. I have DirecTV with a HR10-250, and I live in Westfield (less than 10 miles from the towers). When I look at the reception on my TiVo channel 6 is the strongest signal. I get 8, 13, and 59 without this problem. Has anyone else been having trouble with the ABC OTA feed?

One possibility -- (and yes, I've noticed this too -- WTHR is also flakey from time to time with brief "blackouts" of the picture):

HD usually gets a lot better once the time delay is removed. Once the east coast moves back into Eastern Standard Time and the 1 hour delay goes away, things should get better.

And then, of course, we'll be matched with the east coast going forward, so those time delay issues should be a thing of the past.

BSUGrad

Yes, I too have been having audio drop outs on 6-1 for a few months and again last night on MNF I would get brief audio dropouts and some very minor pixalation of the picture. This has been happening for quite some time, but there doesn't seem to be anyone from WRTV monitoring this forum.

coolray

Bents,

I also live in the Muncie area and using an antenna to pick up local HD's. I'm using the Channel Master 3671 Crossfire and a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp. My antenna is up around 35 feet or so. I live a few miles North of town and I pull in 6,8,13,59 digital stations at this location with this setup. WISH is by far my worst station, however, and my overall signal quality is 20 points or so lower than the rest of them. I'm not sure what your results will be, but I'm guessing I would have problems pulling in WISH with that antenna. You might have to go bigger. However, if you're further South or West, you might be just fine.

I live out in the Cowan area so I am South of you but the guy who hung the antenna hasnt even called me back about replacing the one that he originally put up that wont get 8-1. He hasnt been paid yet so im sure I will be hearing from him.

I live out in the Cowan area .

You should be able to see the new WIPB-DT 52 tower from your house. The station was scheduled to be on the air last month. I haven't heard why it has been delayed. The station has been on the air a few times for testing purposes. It should be on very soon.

Steve

Hello,
First time posting here...been checking out this thread and looks like a lot of great info. Thanks for letting me in.

My question is as follows. I recently have Directv install HD, and they installed an OTA antenna to get the local HD channels. So far I can only get 6.1 and 8.1...13.1, 59.1, and all the rest do not come in. I tried moving the antenna around...but cannot get a strong enough signal. I have it pointing the right direction, and since most of the stations are the same direction from my house, I am not sure what I am doing wrong. We have it installed on the top of our garage, but there are some rather large trees about 100 feet and more away from the antenna. Would they be interfering with the signal?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Kevin

Haven't had that problem since I retired the DTC-100 about two years ago.A newer receiver will cure the problem.

Huh! Really?! I have often wondered. Did you have the aweful signal strength as well. I have NEVER had a signal above 55 regardless of antenna size, time of day, conditions. I am up off 96th & 69 Fishers area. But this popping is absurd. i am currently dicking around with CC over this TV and it's issues for the last month. Their service dept and customer service is a joke. Especially I have noticed as the end of my "city advantage" warranty is nearing the end. Here's to hope.

I am in an apartment on the east side of Terre Haute. I was getting a max of 51 with WTHI, but with the switch I now have 100. Unfortunately, I lost HD right before Two and a Half Men tonight.

I noticed you live on the east side of town. I live at 31st and washington ave. when they moved to farmersburg my signal went from 85 to 40. I just use a indoor antenna. what type of antenna are you using and are you getting any other stations? Thanks

tim arnett

I noticed you live on the east side of town. I live at 31st and washington ave. when they moved to farmersburg my signal went from 85 to 40. I just use a indoor antenna. what type of antenna are you using and are you getting any other stations? Thanks

tim arnett
I assume the Heritage Trail Apartments are considered the east side. I have a cheap Walmart RCA indoor antenna with amp. I have TWC so CBS is the only channel I need, so I don't know about other channels.

Huh! Really?! I have often wondered. Did you have the aweful signal strength as well. I have NEVER had a signal above 55 regardless of antenna size, time of day, conditions. I am up off 96th & 69 Fishers area. But this popping is absurd. i am currently dicking around with CC over this TV and it's issues for the last month. Their service dept and customer service is a joke. Especially I have noticed as the end of my "city advantage" warranty is nearing the end. Here's to hope.

I didn't see any problems with any of the ABC shows I recorded last week OTA. Your tuner does sound like a piece of junk (no offense)... I live a little farther away from the tower than you and get an ABC signal in the low 90's with an indoor antenna. Slap around some people at Circuit City before your warranty expires.

Hello,
First time posting here...been checking out this thread and looks like a lot of great info. Thanks for letting me in.

My question is as follows. I recently have Directv install HD, and they installed an OTA antenna to get the local HD channels. So far I can only get 6.1 and 8.1...13.1, 59.1, and all the rest do not come in. I tried moving the antenna around...but cannot get a strong enough signal. I have it pointing the right direction, and since most of the stations are the same direction from my house, I am not sure what I am doing wrong. We have it installed on the top of our garage, but there are some rather large trees about 100 feet and more away from the antenna. Would they be interfering with the signal?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Kevin

Where are you located?......Indy, Marion, Whiteland??? Are you using a VHF, UHF or VHF/UHF combination antenna? WISH-DT is on ch. 9 (VHF) while all other Indy DTV stations are on UHF channels.

Steve

Where are you located?......Indy, Marion, Whiteland??? Are you using a VHF, UHF or VHF/UHF combination antenna? WISH-DT is on ch. 9 (VHF) while all other Indy DTV stations are on UHF channels.

Steve

Indianapolis...43rd Street and Illinois. I think the antenna is both VHF/UHF, but the antenna cable runs into the Directv satellite box, and that is where I can veiw them.

Indianapolis...43rd Street and Illinois. I think the antenna is both VHF/UHF, but the antenna cable runs into the Directv satellite box, and that is where I can veiw them.

Something is definitely wrong with the antenna installation. With most of the towers in the vicinity of 79th St. and Township Line Road, you can't be more than around 6 miles away. I would have the installer come back and check it out and make sure you are getting WISH-DT 8.1, WRTV-DT 6.1, WTHR-DT 13.1, WXIN-DT 59.1, WFYI-DT 20.1 and WTTK-DT 29.1 (WTTV-DT's translator station, now transmitting from the WXIN tower) BEFORE HE LEAVES!! If you are not able to receive these stations from your nearby location, "we have a problem, Houston."

Steve

bents

I have a Radio Shack VU-160 XR and a rotor and they are mounted in my attic. The antenna is a long range UHF-VHF-FM model. When I built my new home at the reservoir I installed that antenna to make sure I could at least get something to watch when the satellite was down and I had never given a thought about using it for OTA HighDef signal reception. I did not add a pre-amp to it when I installed it and now there is no way I can get back to where it is mounted to install one now. I think a person would be wise to install a VHF-UHF combo antenna, as down the road, I think at least 2 Indy stations are going to use their VHF number instead of their UHF number. Right now WISH is the only channel using a VHF number [2 through 13]. Their number right now is channel 9.

Let me know how your new setup works
coolray

He came back yesterday after going to somebodys house in Selma. Was it you? :)

He put up a channel master 3678 and a channel master 7778 pre amp and so far everything looks ok. I get 6, 8, 13, 59, wb and a couple others that im not concerned with. The reason I chose the above equipment is because thats what he had in stock and I was sick of messing with it.

If I had to do it again I would probably order it all from solidsignal and then have them come and put it up. The one thing that aggrevates me about the whole situation is im looking at his bill and he charged me a service call to fix a mistake that he made.

bents

No, I did not have anyone out here at my area, but there is a guy named Steve something who has installed several tower and antenna setups out here in this area. I do not know if this is your guy or not, but it might be. Most of the folks seem real pleased with their reception that they are getting from his installation. If I am reading the info right on the ChannelMaster 3678 antenna, that thing must be huge at 151 inches long, that is over 12 feet long, wow, you should be able to pick up Hong Kong on that bad boy.

I am assuming you can now get NBC 6-1 and CBS 8-1 and NBC 13-1 and PBS 20-1 and UPN
23-1 and WB 29-1 and the soon to be running local PBS 49-1.

What sort of signal strength numbers are you getting on each individual channel and also, if you don't mind, what type of display device are you using to see the picture.

I have been looking on ChannelMaster's site trying to find out what the difference is between the 7777 pre-amp and the 7778.

coolray

bents

No, I did not have anyone out here at my area, but there is a guy named Steve something who has installed several tower and antenna setups out here in this area. I do not know if this is your guy or not, but it might be. Most of the folks seem real pleased with their reception that they are getting from his installation. If I am reading the info right on the ChannelMaster 3678 antenna, that thing must be huge at 151 inches long, that is over 12 feet long, wow, you should be able to pick up Hong Kong on that bad boy.

I am assuming you can now get NBC 6-1 and CBS 8-1 and NBC 13-1 and PBS 20-1 and UPN
23-1 and WB 29-1 and the soon to be running local PBS 49-1.

What sort of signal strength numbers are you getting on each individual channel and also, if you don't mind, what type of display device are you using to see the picture.

I have been looking on ChannelMaster's site trying to find out what the difference is between the 7777 pre-amp and the 7778.

coolray

Im viewing it on a Hitachi Plasma and im getting 49% on every channel so I think its not a true strength reading because before I changed antennas and pre-amp I was also getting 49%. I am getting all the channels you mentioned except upn which im not concerned with. What arent you getting that you want?

bents

Well I don't get 59-1 all of the time, its mostly about 60 to 70 % of the time that I can get that one and I don't get 29-1 at all, but I do get the analog version of 29 and it is a pretty good picture considering. 20-1 only comes in before 8:00 in the morning and then I lose the signal. I have a rotor and have to move it a little to get a good strong signal on 23-1. 8-1 has lost some of it signal strength here at my home in the last year, could be trees leafing out or could be several things. I still think I would be better off with an outside antenna with a pre-amplifier, but all in all I can't complain to much as I can usually watch anything I want in HD, most of the time.

Coolray

I didn't see any problems with any of the ABC shows I recorded last week OTA. Your tuner does sound like a piece of junk (no offense)... I live a little farther away from the tower than you and get an ABC signal in the low 90's with an indoor antenna. Slap around some people at Circuit City before your warranty expires.

Tell me about it. My wife is GREAT at handling customer service people, and idiots on the phone. We (she) have been on the phone with everyone possible, and they just will not call back. We just want some answers and know we are protected after this repair again. The only one who actually did much good was the store manager locally who got us in touch with someone and we are getting a whopping $40 gift card. Which is nice and we are not wanting something free out of this (though I will take it) we just want customer service to "service" thier customers and at least try and be helpful. Instead they just instantly say "Okay so you want me to put in a request for an exchange" and thier best line is "Someone will call you in 24-48hrs" yeah right. Anyways, the repair guy says he has same TV and live relatively close to where I do and he has no problems with just a plain bow-tie in his attic. So he will be installing a new tuner as well as the "main DM1 board". I have the Radio Shack double bow tie that gets great reviews and praise.

Something is definitely wrong with the antenna installation. With most of the towers in the vicinity of 79th St. and Township Line Road, you can't be more than around 6 miles away. I would have the installer come back and check it out and make sure you are getting WISH-DT 8.1, WRTV-DT 6.1, WTHR-DT 13.1, WXIN-DT 59.1, WFYI-DT 20.1 and WTTK-DT 29.1 (WTTV-DT's translator station, now transmitting from the WXIN tower) BEFORE HE LEAVES!! If you are not able to receive these stations from your nearby location, "we have a problem, Houston."

Steve
I need to check the wiring tonight...because we have only one cable coming into the house, and the splitter inside sends one cable to "Satellite In", and the other goes to "Antenna In" portion of the Directv box. Somehow the dish and antenna feeds into the house via one cable...not sure if that might be part of the problem or not.

For what it is worth...it is a Wineguard antenna, $50. If I live that close to the towers...does the antenna have to be pointed in the direction of the towers? Or would that type of antenna work facing a completely different direction?

I need to check the wiring tonight...because we have only one cable coming into the house, and the splitter inside sends one cable to "Satellite In", and the other goes to "Antenna In" portion of the Directv box. Somehow the dish and antenna feeds into the house via one cable...not sure if that might be part of the problem or not.
If the correct joiner/splitters are used, that shouldn't be a problem... They often join signals at the dish, and then separate them at the reciever.

Another thought for those of us who live in the Wabash Valley is try and start a discussion on this using the Terre Haute Tribune's on-line forums. Maybe if the paper got interested they might do a story? You never know. By the way how many people in here actually can receive WTWO or FOX38?

I'll start....RWB receives 10, 2, 38 and their DT counterparts.


I'm getting 10, 2, 38, 30 (all three channels). Outdoor YAGI pointed towards Bloomington.. but I'm just about 4 miles north of Farmersburg.. your results may vary.

I sent a note to Dan Reynolds to do one of his "Tech Talks" on HD, hopefully putting some pressure to start upgrading the station (they're STILL NOT BROADCASTING IN STEREO even!). Sheesh.
Thanks for the Nexstar info.

My reception on 6-1 has been horrible recently. I get the ticking and popping at least 3-4 times an hour. My recording of Desperate Housewives on Sunday was pretty much unwatchable. 6-1 is the only one that does this. I have DirecTV with a HR10-250, and I live in Westfield (less than 10 miles from the towers). When I look at the reception on my TiVo channel 6 is the strongest signal. I get 8, 13, and 59 without this problem. Has anyone else been having trouble with the ABC OTA feed?

We have been experiencing the exact same issue with Deperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on our HR10-250. We're up in the Noblesville area. I have also noticed that our 6-1 signal is the strongest. Somewhere around a 94.

I plan on recording both shows this coming weekend on my HR10 and our Media Center PC to see if the issue shows up on both of them (ATI HDTV Wonder card).

So the annoying ticking is not just me and my crappy tuner on abc 6-1?! I know I still have a piece of jusnk though. I cannot get WB to save my life. i can get 4 anolog fine, I can get 29 analog fine. I get 59 analog and digital but no WB.

So the annoying ticking is not just me and my crappy tuner on abc 6-1?! I know I still have a piece of jusnk though. I cannot get WB to save my life. i can get 4 anolog fine, I can get 29 analog fine. I get 59 analog and digital but no WB.

The ticking audio problem has been an inherent situation between the RCA DTC100 and WRTV-DT. Supposedly this is due to the software package used by WRTV-DT, according to the engineering department. I've always had this problem off and on since I bought my first STB, the DTC100, over 4 years ago. Sometimes the audio is flawless and other times it does cause a lot of ticking problems. I now own several STBs and the DTC100 is the only one that experiences this problem.

In defense of the DTC100, my unit can still outperform some of my newer STBs in regards to receiving some of the weaker DTV stations. At my location on the northside it receives WTTV-DT 48 (4.1) @ 36 miles better than my fairly new LG LST-3100A. I live 5 miles from the WXIN/WTTK-DT tower and have no problems receiving WTTK-DT 54 (29.1 & 29.2). Both stations register over 90 on the DTC100 signal meter with an outside antenna. Sometimes with my indoor Zenith Silver Sensor I can receive WTTK-DT (2kW) better (or easier) than WXIN-DT (700kW). This is probably due to multipath.......

FWIW, some of the HD problems in Indy should go away now that Daylight Saving Time is over and the local stations no longer have to time-shift network programming. WXIN-DT (Fox) was the lone exception, due to an appropriate "live" feed from the network that fit the Indiana time situation. Starting today, the stations can now feed the "live" network feed from New York.

Steve

In defense of the DTC100, my unit can still outperform some of my newer STBs in regards to receiving some of the weaker DTV stations. At my location on the northside it receives WTTV-DT 48 (4.1) @ 36 miles better than my fairly new LG LST-3100A. I live 5 miles from the WXIN/WTTK-DT tower and have no problems receiving WTTK-DT 54 (29.1 & 29.2). Both stations register over 90 on the DTC100 signal meter with an outside antenna. Sometimes with my indoor Zenith Silver Sensor I can receive WTTK-DT (2kW) better (or easier) than WXIN-DT (700kW). This is probably due to multipath.......



Steve

I don't think even the best lawyer in the country could defend my tuner! It is the DTC-100 but is not the STB it is built into my television (F38310). Let me tell you it has the WORST reception I have ever seen. As i have said in other posts, I have NEVER seen a signal above 60, I think one time while it was jumping around like it always does it went to 62 on WISH 8-1 but that was very brief. I too am on the north side at 96th street and I-69, and have nowhere near the reception you claim. Whether I use my double bowties in the attic, indoors, a UHF/VHF channel master I tried on the roof, and in the attic, an indoor antenna including the famed Silver Surfer, NOTHING can help this thing bring in a strong signal, nothing and it is unbelievably frustrating.

Just got off the phone with the head engineer at WIPB and he said they push the button today at 2:30 pm EST. He said their OTA channel number will be 52 which should remap to 49-1 on your receivers. The transmitter has been ready for a month but today is the 35th anniversary of their analog signal going online. Best wishes to all for a successful launch!

I sent an email to WTWO asking them when they were going to catch up to WTHI and start broadcasting HD.... I told him that they were forcing me to start watching NBC and FOX out of Indy...

Got a reply from someone from Nexstar:
"We will not be full power until sometime in 2007. "

2007?????

I guess I will have to invest in that Rotor, so that I can continue to support WTHI, since they have put the effort into HD broadcasting, yet still be able to see 24 in High Def....

Got a reply from someone from Nexstar:
"We will not be full power until sometime in 2007. "


Don't let that fool you into thinking that they will go HD. Our Fox station in Ft. Wayne is owned by Nexstar and even when they do end up going full power digital, I don't expect them to be HD.

Don't let that fool you into thinking that they will go HD. Our Fox station in Ft. Wayne is owned by Nexstar and even when they do end up going full power digital, I don't expect them to be HD.

I asked that specifically, and he said:
"No HD capability until we go full power and add all of the encoders, etc."

Then when pressed about WTHI beating them to the HD market, etc, he replied:
"Our company is going to spend 60+ Million dollars to convert. We'll have to
bust our hump to get it done by what looks like the 2008 cutoff of analog.
That's the best I can do...2007."

I asked that specifically, and he said:
"No HD capability until we go full power and add all of the encoders, etc."What he means is they will go full power in 2007... still in 480i. In December of 2007, they MIGHT get around to having a meeting to decide whether or not it will be worth it to upgrade to something better (like widescreen 480p.. still in mono). Yes, Nexstar is really "busting their hump" and shelling out the big bucks here in the Wabash Valley, let me tell you.

I mean, I see it from Nexstar's point of view too... broadcasting is not the monopoly of CBS/NBC/ABS that it once was... but then again, Time Warner Cable's picture quality in Terre Haute is HORRENDOUS (especially on the south side), so it's not like consumers have tons of choices.

I love this forum when people from major cities complain about DirecTV's "HD Lite" and argue over which of the 5 cable companies serving their neighborhood has the largest HD lineup. They'd probably shoot themselves if they had to live in a market like Terre Haute.

I agree. I think that you should be able to get a waiver for any network that you can't get in HD. Nexstar doesn't want to broadcast it? Fine, give me one out of NY, Chi, or LA! - not the old standard definition... just the HiDef.... I mean I wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes.

This means that we flat out CANNOT get an HD signal for Fox or NBC, and there is no course of action that would cause the owner of Nexstar to be forced to move on it...because there are no alternatives.

We have been experiencing the exact same issue with Deperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on our HR10-250. We're up in the Noblesville area. I have also noticed that our 6-1 signal is the strongest. Somewhere around a 94.

I plan on recording both shows this coming weekend on my HR10 and our Media Center PC to see if the issue shows up on both of them (ATI HDTV Wonder card).


Just wanted to throw out that I use the HR10-250 with an indoor antenna and I've never had a problem on RTV like the one you describe. But those units all seem to have their own little flaws... mine came with a defective HDMI output. I doubt there's any single unit on the planet that actually works correctly.

Just got off the phone with the head engineer at WIPB and he said they push the button today at 2:30 pm EST. He said their OTA channel number will be 52 which should remap to 49-1 on your receivers. The transmitter has been ready for a month but today is the 35th anniversary of their analog signal going online. Best wishes to all for a successful launch!

Thanks for the update, jculp99. I am located 42.5 miles from the analog tower and 40 miles from the new DTV tower. The DTV signal is quite strong with my outdoor antenna and my Humax STB is currently showing a signal reading of 70% with the Zenith Silver Sensor (no amplifier on the line) sitting on the floor.

While WFYI-DT is sending its HD at 720p, WIPB-DT is sending its HD at 1080i and is currently operating just one additional subchannel. Comparing WFYI-HD to WIPB-HD on a 17" (Dell) LCD HDTV monitor (720p) and a 60" (Sony) SXRD HDTV monitor (1080p), I tend to see more detail and sharpness from WIPB-DT on both monitors.

Congratulations to CE Bob Fairchild and the staff at WIPB-DT. Television has come a long way since Don Burton started Indiana's 4th TV station, WLBC-49 (now WIPB-TV/DT) April 29, 1953.

Steve

I had my OTA installed by DirecTV along with an HR10-250. I believe the antenna is a Winegard Sensar III GS-1100 (bi-directional, non-amplified). I live at 73rd/Merdian in Indy which is no more than 2-3 miles from all of the major network towers. The only station I can get consistently is WISH 8.1. It comes in crystal clear all of the time without interruption. I only really care about the major networks. The problem is that I intermittently receive WRTV-DT 6.1, WTHR-DT 13.1, WXIN-DT 59.1. The reception usually breaks up every minute or two which makes it too annoying to watch.

I don't know too much about this stuff, but I feel like I'm close enough to the towers that I should be able to get ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS without much problem. I've had DirecTV out here twice already without success so I'm done dealing with those morons. I'm looking for help where to start troubleshooting. After reading through the forums, these are the things that might be a factor and I could use some input as to which might be the best place to start:

1) Is the Winegard Sensar III GS-1100 just a piece of junk? Another user approx. 6 miles from the towers in Indy could not get reception either.

2) The signal is diplexed with my satellite signal over about 100 ft. of cable. Am I losing too much signal strength with that much cable plus diplexing?

3) My house has an A frame roof with the apex running north/south parallel to Meridian. The DirecTV morons installed the antenna on the east side of the
house and the antenna barely (or doesn't even) clear the top of roof. All of the signals I need are west or NW of my house.

4) The antenna is right next to my satellite dish. Can this cause any problems?

Any other ideas would also be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Ryan

I had my OTA installed by DirecTV along with an HR10-250. I believe the antenna is a Winegard Sensar III GS-1100 (bi-directional, non-amplified). I live at 73rd/Merdian in Indy which is no more than 2-3 miles from all of the major network towers. The only station I can get consistently is WISH 8.1. It comes in crystal clear all of the time without interruption. I only really care about the major networks. The problem is that I intermittently receive WRTV-DT 6.1, WTHR-DT 13.1, WXIN-DT 59.1. The reception usually breaks up every minute or two which makes it too annoying to watch.

I don't know too much about this stuff, but I feel like I'm close enough to the towers that I should be able to get ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS without much problem. I've had DirecTV out here twice already without success so I'm done dealing with those morons. I'm looking for help where to start troubleshooting. After reading through the forums, these are the things that might be a factor and I could use some input as to which might be the best place to start:

1) Is the Winegard Sensar III GS-1100 just a piece of junk? Another user approx. 6 miles from the towers in Indy could not get reception either.

2) The signal is diplexed with my satellite signal over about 100 ft. of cable. Am I losing too much signal strength with that much cable plus diplexing?

3) My house has an A frame roof with the apex running north/south parallel to Meridian. The DirecTV morons installed the antenna on the east side of the
house and the antenna barely (or doesn't even) clear the top of roof. All of the signals I need are west or NW of my house.

4) The antenna is right next to my satellite dish. Can this cause any problems?

Any other ideas would also be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Ryan


Hi Ryan;
First of all, let me tell you point blank that I am NOT an installer or an expert. But I've fooled with digital quite a bit, and am willing to share with you my opinions.
I live about eight miles from a digital station in Bloomington which is not nearly as strong as the ones you are three miles from.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I can receive it with a wire hanging out of my SIR-T351.
My guess is that the antenna you're using doesn't amount to very much, a long run is hurting you, a diplexer is hurting you, and that having your antenna near the satellite is also a problem.
A lot of people have good luck with a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna, which is a readily available cool looking little antenna. It isn't designed for VHF, which would mean in theory you should have trouble with channel 8's digital channel 9, but I'll bet that you're so close to the towers it won't matter.
http://www.zenith.com/sub_prod/product_Display.asp?cat=49&id=131
I'd try a Silver Sensor in the same room as your digital receiver and away from the satellite dish. If you experiment a lot by moving the antenna around the room and pointing it in several different directions, I'll bet you start getting the stations you're concerned with. You are so close to the transmitters.
I get all of the ones you're talking about from about fifty miles away, but I need an outdoor antenna and a good amp. You shouldn't need any of that!
Nat Hill IV

I asked that specifically, and he said:
"No HD capability until we go full power and add all of the encoders, etc."

Then when pressed about WTHI beating them to the HD market, etc, he replied:
"Our company is going to spend 60+ Million dollars to convert. We'll have to
bust our hump to get it done by what looks like the 2008 cutoff of analog.
That's the best I can do...2007."

Thanks Eleven for the update. Same goes to Darney and Jason.

Yeah, it looks like if you live in the valley your destined for tv he!!. Living out in the country with the trees and deep deeep deeeeeep fringe area for Indy channels pretty much makes things SOL during winter months. Summer conditions and things come in pretty reliable. Eventually I'll need to go dish, but haven't previous to this because of WB4 and the Pacer games which I can only get using cable.

I again had the brief audio dropouts again last night on MNF, and so I guess the speculation that going off of Daylight Savings Time would clear that up was premature. I am sure that others experienced the same problem or am I the only one. Either way I am glad that I do not watch much programming on WRTV, but if I did it would sure be a pain in the ---.

coolray.

p.s. Glad to see that Muncie is now in the Digital age of broadcasting. I am sure they would like to hear from areas of Ohio and the Fort Wayne area and over toward Lafayette and of course down toward Indy to see how their signal is being recieved.

coolray

I agree. I think that you should be able to get a waiver for any network that you can't get in HD. Nexstar doesn't want to broadcast it? Fine, give me one out of NY, Chi, or LA! - not the old standard definition... just the HiDef.... I mean I wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes.

This means that we flat out CANNOT get an HD signal for Fox or NBC, and there is no course of action that would cause the owner of Nexstar to be forced to move on it...because there are no alternatives.John McCain proposed a bill to this effect earlier this year. (He's on the Communications Committee.) I don't think it's gone anywhere though. Time to start writing your government officials!

rexmolsen:
The problem you are experiencing is normal for the area you live in. The HR10-250 and many other OTA receivers have a difficult time with multipath (ghosting) problems. Often times being as close to the towers as you are causes more problems than it cures since the signal is so strong and comes to your antenna both directly and indirectly. I recommend that you hire an installer with proper OTA test equipment to determine what would be the best approach. Most likely you will need to move the antenna location into the attic if possible to get a clearer direct path to the towers and then select a location dependent on the tree issues, which I am sure you must have at 73rd and Meridian. I do not suspect that the diplexers are your problem since signal strength should be good there and they have a low insertion loss. Any antenna recommendation given to you on this forum should be taken with a grain of salt salt since they have not seen the specific install and the signal issues. Keep in mind that all though most of the signal come from almost directly west of you, WTHR comes from further north and as close as you are is a reasonably severe angle making directionality that much more critical. The funny thing is that at your house you may be able to wrap a coat hanger around the coax and get a better signal than with the current setup but it may not work at all when the wind comes up and the trees sway or it snows. Save yourself lots of time, money, and frustration and hire an expert soon before the leaves fall.

I again had the brief audio dropouts again last night on MNF, and so I guess the speculation that going off of Daylight Savings Time would clear that up was premature. I am sure that others experienced the same problem or am I the only one. Either way I am glad that I do not watch much programming on WRTV, but if I did it would sure be a pain in the ---.

coolray.

p.s. Glad to see that Muncie is now in the Digital age of broadcasting. I am sure they would like to hear from areas of Ohio and the Fort Wayne area and over toward Lafayette and of course down toward Indy to see how their signal is being recieved.

coolray

I just did a rescan of my channels and went from getting 12 channels to 20. Im getting wlfi now and the new muncie channel. It looks good.

Thanks to all who responded. I think I've gotten my problems resolved after purchasing an amplified indoor UHF/VHF antenna. I never really even considered an indoor antenna previously. I bought the Terk HDTVA for $60 (and a compass for $3) just to see what would happen. I didn't feel like wasting any more time trying to figure out the bare minimum, cheapest antenna that would work. I figured I would take it back if it didn't work.

The result is that I now have the antenna in my basement, and I receive a constant 80+% signal strength on 6.1, 8.1, 13.1, 20.1, 23.1, and 59.1 on my DirecTV HR10-250. I tested with the amplifier on and off, and I did not see much difference when the antenna was pointed in the right direction (about 280 degrees from my location). Using the Winegard Sensar III GS-1100 on my roof the signal strength would jump around between 0 and 70. The one interesting thing is that I lose signal on all UHF stations if I extend the VHF antenna on the unit. Luckily, I don't need to.

Needless to say, I am a happy man today. The regular MNF broadcast really looked like crap on my TV. I vowed to get this resolved before the Colts stomp the Pats next week. Thanks again to those who responded (Swany11, nathill, and smpte). At least now if I need to adjust the antenna I don't have to climb the roof. This forum was really helpful.

Ryan

Ryan,
Interesting...looks like I might have to follow your lead. Thanks for the info. Did you send your antenna back to Directv yet?
Kevin

WRTV-DT has decided not to s--t--r--e--t--c--h SD programming. WISH-DT recently changed to 4:3 and now WRTV-DT has followed suit. Among the major players, will WTHR-DT be the lone stretcher or will it change, too?

Steve

Thanks to all who responded.....
Needless to say, I am a happy man today. The regular MNF broadcast really looked like crap on my TV. I vowed to get this resolved before the Colts stomp the Pats next week. Thanks again to those who responded (Swany11, nathill, and smpte). At least now if I need to adjust the antenna I don't have to climb the roof. This forum was really helpful.
Ryan

Hey Ryan;
Glad it worked out so well for you.
Ain't digital neat?
Nat

WRTV-DT has decided not to s--t--r--e--t--c--h SD programming. WISH-DT recently changed to 4:3 and now WRTV-DT has followed suit. Among the major players, will WTHR-DT be the lone stretcher or will it change, too?

Steve

Why have they decided to do this? I think the picture looks worse especially while watching sports. This is aggrevating and even if I stretch it using the settings on my tv it it doesnt look right.

The HD went out a few times during the CBS comedies on WTHI tonight. It is completely out on Out of Practice. Is there testing still being done on the new tower?

Ok, I am pretty good at lurking, but perhaps not so hot at posting, but here is my story. First, a little about me. Been in CATV equipment sales most of my life, so I take reception personally. Second, location - I am 1-1/2 air miles northwest of the WLFI tower in Clinton County (what great luck to be on the opposite side as Indy). Third, equipment - 61" Panasonic LCD currently fed by a Zenith GEM1DTV and a tower mounted 10dB gain dist amp (not really a pre-amp) all about 20' high on my tower leg. Why the leg you say? Well, I have an old Winegard wedge type V-U antenna of good size (best guess would be a CH-8098) at the top of my 36' tower with an 18dB gain pre-amp, but unfortunately the rotor spun the gears and it is now a pinwheel. I hope to get that fixed next week by a local tower guy (the thought of "The view from 900' up the tower" makes my butt pucker), so reception should be perfect then. I have been getting locals from DishNetwork due to the rotor problem, but the HD looks so great, I'm going back to OTA! So far signal levels vary from around 30% on 8-1 to 82% on 59-1. Plenty of WLFI of course! Hopefully I will have more to report after the tower work, but thought I would share for now.

Why have they decided to do this? I think the picture looks worse especially while watching sports. This is aggrevating and even if I stretch it using the settings on my tv it it doesnt look right.

Many here feel that stretching SD video from its native 4:3 ratio does not look right. The normal, natural look for SD is 4:3 (analog screen) while the normal, natural look for HD is 16:9. Anything else is not natural or the normal aspect ratio.

Steve

Hi,
I'm going to be in Fishers helping my sister set up a new HDTV and she will be getting Insight cable. Does anyone in the area have the Insight HD-DVR, and if so, what model is it? I'm thinking that if it is the SA8300 that maybe an external hard drive might be in order to expand capacity. I also seem to remember reading in the 8300 thread that there are 2 different operating systems being used on the 8300. So, if the 8300 is what they have out, let me know which OS is being run.

Thanks,
Robert

P.S. Any additional advice would be appreciated.

Insight uses the Motorola 6208/6412 boxes, no SA boxes.

Many here feel that stretching SD video from its native 4:3 ratio does not look right. The normal, natural look for SD is 4:3 (analog screen) while the normal, natural look for HD is 16:9. Anything else is not natural or the normal aspect ratio.

Steve

I second that. The distortion from a stretched picture makes such programming pretty much unwatchable for me.

I second that. The distortion from a stretched picture makes such programming pretty much unwatchable for me.

I third that.

Nat Hill IV

Many here feel that stretching SD video from its native 4:3 ratio does not look right. The normal, natural look for SD is 4:3 (analog screen) while the normal, natural look for HD is 16:9. Anything else is not natural or the normal aspect ratio.

Steve

I thought they were talking about HD which should tell you I dont know what im talking about. I dont even watch OTA if its not HD so I wasnt aware.

SD material when properly deinterlaced and scaled to HD can look pretty good. It's not true HD but still typically looks and sounds much better then what would come in over the cable. Part of getting it right is preserving the original aspect ratio.

HD material is normally recorded in 16:9 so no need to stretch. It naturally fills the screen of a HD set.

So this may be an old topic, but what's up with WTHR not being able to show severe weather bugs over an HD signal? They switched out of HD to show one last night during "Earl," and when they tried later to put the bug over the HD signal, the picture went wacky and they took it off really quickly. Don't they have something that would work in HD?

Haven't been reading this thread for awhile, but I thought I might post an update for those who don't know...

Some people who are in the Indianapolis DMA market, but live too far away to receive OTA HD signals are now able to easily get them (well, some of them at least) over the Distant Network Feeds (DNS). Check here: directvdnseligibility.decisionmark.com/app/display.asp to see what you're eligible for.

Where I'm at in bloomington, I can get ABC and FOX HD channels from NY. For CBS and NBC, I have to get a waiver. I know for fact that I cannot get HD OTA signals from any of those channels at my house. just doesn't happen. So I'm sure I can get them.

Anyway, that's good news. And sometime early next year, of course, DTV will have the Indy locals in HD over satellite. Too bad we weren't in the top 24 DMAs... we're 1 shy at #25 :(

I third that.

Nat Hill IV


my toshiba widescreen TV does such a great job that NO ONE ever says anything looks bad w/ the picture. The only time i ever notice it is on something w/ a ticker on the bottom/top of the screen.

All,

I have been having my ongoing battle with Brighthouse cable and lack of local HD stations.
The latest was brighthouse claiming that it was a national issue with national companies and nothing they could do about it locally. Guess what McGraw-Hill which owns WRTV 6 also owns the ABC station in Bakersfield CA which is carried on Brighthouse cable HD. Hum.....

Still awaiting a response to that one. I guess one day I will have to break down and get a HD tuner. I tried going to DISH and OTA but was not able to get good enough reception with indoor antennas.

Jerry

And sometime early next year, of course, DTV will have the Indy locals in HD over satellite. Too bad we weren't in the top 24 DMAs... we're 1 shy at #25 :(

Originally, they mentioned the Top 30 markets. I think that people started saying 24 when it was announced the first group was 12. But even then, they skipped Seattle, I think, so they are up to 13 (+12 more = 25)! :-) At least I can hope it works that way.

my toshiba widescreen TV does such a great job that NO ONE ever says anything looks bad w/ the picture. The only time i ever notice it is on something w/ a ticker on the bottom/top of the screen.

What happens when you have something that should be round on the screen?

What happens when you have something that should be round on the screen?


depends on where it's located. But for the most part, it's not very noticeable.

I believe that the way the stretching is done, the entire image is slightly enlarged, then the image is expanded out in concentric circles from the center. In other words, most of the images located in the middle area of the tv are kept pretty much in tact. As you get out near the edges, is where the majority of the stretching/expanding has occured.

But yes, some circular images are more oval in nature, but the way the stretching is accomplished, you hardly ever notice it. I can switch back to 4:3 and can barey tell the difference.

The reason that you won't notice the stretching when it's done in this manner, is because our eyes focus on the middle of the screen as that's where most of the information is taking place. but I'm probably way off on my understanding of the technology LOL

Originally, they mentioned the Top 30 markets. I think that people started saying 24 when it was announced the first group was 12. But even then, they skipped Seattle, I think, so they are up to 13 (+12 more = 25)! :-) At least I can hope it works that way.


i was talking to another guy who is "in the BIZ" as he puts it and said something about it not happening until this same time next year. I think i'd cry if that happened :(

All,

I have been having my ongoing battle with Brighthouse cable and lack of local HD stations.
The latest was brighthouse claiming that it was a national issue with national companies and nothing they could do about it locally. Guess what McGraw-Hill which owns WRTV 6 also owns the ABC station in Bakersfield CA which is carried on Brighthouse cable HD. Hum.....

Still awaiting a response to that one. I guess one day I will have to break down and get a HD tuner. I tried going to DISH and OTA but was not able to get good enough reception with indoor antennas.

Jerry

Unfortunately, I too live in a Bright (Dull) House neighborhood. Regarding local HDTV, this has to be the worst cable company in the Indy metro. This company is not even batting .500! I know that Bright House and WRTV management have had several meetings but obviously nothing has been resolved.

This morning I noticed that WTHR-DT has also stopped stretching SD programming. WISH-DT set things in motion, and now most of the dominoes have fallen.........

Steve

Hi all, I thought "Veronica Mars" is in HD, at least it was in HD last season.

Maybe I miss something, what happened to the UPN23-DT?

thanks.

It's coming. While we've been moving WNDY's operation to the WISH building, the one thing that isn't working is true HD for WNDY. We're about a week away from moving/installing some equipment that will restore the HD to full operation.

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY Engineering

Tom,

Thank you very much for the good news.

It's coming. While we've been moving WNDY's operation to the WISH building, the one thing that isn't working is true HD for WNDY. We're about a week away from moving/installing some equipment that will restore the HD to full operation.

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY Engineering


Tom, that's good news.

I do have a waiver question, maybe you could help me out with... /prays :p/

I'm in bloomington, IN in an area where i absolutely can not get HD OTA. (I've tried. can't get the antenna up high enough.) I have Direct. I just found out that I can get Fox and ABC in HD over sat on the Distant network feeds without a waiver. CBS and NBC shows me at a Grade B signal and will need a waiver.

So what's my likelyhood of getting a waver from WISH :o

Up until the last 2 days, I rarely had black bars on the sides of these channels. 20-1 comes in great and fills the whole screen. The other channels come in great , but black bars are continuously displayed on each side of the picture. I do not have the problem with 13-2 6-2 and 8-2. Any suggestions? I am a rookie at this , so any help would be greatly appreciated. A 55 inch tv that fills only part of the screen stinks!

i was talking to another guy who is "in the BIZ" as he puts it and said something about it not happening until this same time next year. I think i'd cry if that happened :(

I was under the impression that this time next year was the EARLIEST we'd see DirecTV carry our HD locals. The last list of markets I saw (on this forum, different board) had us at 29 or 30 anyway.

Really, the only reason I'm anticipating getting those channels over the dish is because that means they'll have more room for national HD channels on the new satellites. Getting locals OTA isn't bad at all... compared with the rest of D*, the PQ is better, and you'll still get a signal when it rains :D

I was under the impression that this time next year was the EARLIEST we'd see DirecTV carry our HD locals. The last list of markets I saw (on this forum, different board) had us at 29 or 30 anyway.

Really, the only reason I'm anticipating getting those channels over the dish is because that means they'll have more room for national HD channels on the new satellites. Getting locals OTA isn't bad at all... compared with the rest of D*, the PQ is better, and you'll still get a signal when it rains :D


that's nice, IF you can get them OTA... I can't :(

I just turned on WTHR 13-1 and couldn't help but notice that they have abandoned their stretch-o-vision format. It is now pure 4:3. About time! Looks like all the dominoes have fallen.

Greg

It's coming. While we've been moving WNDY's operation to the WISH building, the one thing that isn't working is true HD for WNDY. We're about a week away from moving/installing some equipment that will restore the HD to full operation.

Tom Weber
WISH / WNDY Engineering

Slightly off topic, but do you have any idea if WNDY will ever be added to Comcast's HD lineup in Indy? It's the only local we don't have in HD here for some reason. Or is it Comcast's decision to not offer that channel?

It's not a huge deal now that Enterprise is gone (and after their best season!), but there are still a couple of good shows on UPN.

Jeff

I'm happy to say (for the puposes of having to participate in the forum <g>) that I just don't know. The Programming Dept. takes care of carriage issues and waiver issues. They consult with us on signal strength implications, but they set and enfore policy on waivers.

Tom Weber
WISH, WNDY, and more

Just a quick note - WNDY digital is presently off the air. Lost a main and backup amplifier, following routine overnight maintenance. Attempting to get a spare from Ft. Wayne while parts get ordered from the manufacturer. With luck, we'll be back in a couple of hours.

Tom Weber

WNDY digital is back up and on the air as of 9:45 this morning. Thanks to our station WANE in Ft. Wayne for a borrowed part, and thanks to you folks for your patience!

Tom Weber

The HD went out a few times during the CBS comedies on WTHI tonight. It is completely out on Out of Practice. Is there testing still being done on the new tower?

Sorry for the delay...

Not sure why this happened! I will check logs to see what may have happened. I believe I was watching 10-1 that evening, but did not notice any outage. I have noticed outages previously when my antenna was pointed a different direction. Almost like interference from time to time. Like two way radio traffic, it would cause signal to go away just like a one sided two way conversation....?????
When I move my antenna, not nessisarilly pointed directly at 10-1, My signal is very stable now...<Clay Co, IN>.
Ken

I'm happy to say (for the puposes of having to participate in the forum <g>) that I just don't know. The Programming Dept. takes care of carriage issues and waiver issues. They consult with us on signal strength implications, but they set and enfore policy on waivers.

Tom Weber
WISH, WNDY, and more

would it be possible to get contact information so that I can talk to someone about the waivers? email? I just want to check prior to wasting my time :p

Sorry for the delay...

Not sure why this happened! I will check logs to see what may have happened. I believe I was watching 10-1 that evening, but did not notice any outage. I have noticed outages previously when my antenna was pointed a different direction. Almost like interference from time to time. Like two way radio traffic, it would cause signal to go away just like a one sided two way conversation....?????
When I move my antenna, not nessisarilly pointed directly at 10-1, My signal is very stable now...<Clay Co, IN>.
Ken
My atenna does not move because it is only used for your channel. I'm sorry if you have been asked this several times before, but are there any plans for it to be on TWC?

Has anyone noticed 59-1 having severe video/audio breakups the last two weeks? I've been trying to record Prison Break on my HR10-250 and it's unwatchable. It worked before just perfectly, now the last two weeks it's been terrible. I have a SS hooked up to my HR10-250 and am about 20 miles from the antennas down here near the Airport. I get great reception (except for the clicks/pops on 6-1 like others mentioned) yet 59-1 has been awful the last 2 weeks.

I monitored the signal strength and 13.1 which is frequency 46 is in the 90's for strength. 59-1, or frequency 45 is all over the board, from 15-65 in strength. They're nearly identical in distance and the same degree.

I wonder what is going on. Anyone have a contact at Fox to email about this?

Has anyone noticed 59-1 having severe video/audio breakups the last two weeks? I've been trying to record Prison Break on my HR10-250 and it's unwatchable. It worked before just perfectly, now the last two weeks it's been terrible. I have a SS hooked up to my HR10-250 and am about 20 miles from the antennas down here near the Airport. I get great reception (except for the clicks/pops on 6-1 like others mentioned) yet 59-1 has been awful the last 2 weeks.

I monitored the signal strength and 13.1 which is frequency 46 is in the 90's for strength. 59-1, or frequency 45 is all over the board, from 15-65 in strength. They're nearly identical in distance and the same degree.

I wonder what is going on. Anyone have a contact at Fox to email about this?

I've forwarded your post to Rick Poling at WXIN. I've been experiencing some of this over the past week too, but I usually do this time of year. I'm about 6 miles northeast of the tower in a fairly heavily wooded neighborhood and I seem to notice this every year as the leaves are falling. My theory is that given my close proximity to the tower, the leaves reduce the effects of multipath and then when they are gone there is nothing to block it. Multipath is usually the cause for wild and erratic signal fluctuations, as you described. The true signal and the slightly delayed signal (the effect from the multipath signal) confuses the receiver.

We'll see what Rick thinks about this and I'll post his comments. Thanks.

Steve

I've forwarded your post to Rick Poling at WXIN. I've been experiencing some of this over the past week too, but I usually do this time of year. I'm about 6 miles northeast of the tower in a fairly heavily wooded neighborhood and I seem to notice this every year as the leaves are falling. My theory is that given my close proximity to the tower, the leaves reduce the effects of multipath and then when they are gone there is nothing to block it. Multipath is usually the cause for wild and erratic signal fluctuations, as you described. The true signal and the slightly delayed signal (the effect from the multipath signal) confuses the receiver.

We'll see what Rick thinks about this and I'll post his comments. Thanks.

Steve

Thanks for doing that. I live down in Camby and there is NOTHING in my way to the tower. The entire neighborhood isn't more than 7 years old, and there are no trees in my way. I hope they can alleviate any issues they're having before 24 airs, otherwise there will be problems....

Has anyone noticed 59-1 having severe video/audio breakups the last two weeks? I've been trying to record Prison Break on my HR10-250 and it's unwatchable. It worked before just perfectly, now the last two weeks it's been terrible. I have a SS hooked up to my HR10-250 and am about 20 miles from the antennas down here near the Airport. I get great reception (except for the clicks/pops on 6-1 like others mentioned) yet 59-1 has been awful the last 2 weeks.

I monitored the signal strength and 13.1 which is frequency 46 is in the 90's for strength. 59-1, or frequency 45 is all over the board, from 15-65 in strength. They're nearly identical in distance and the same degree.

I wonder what is going on. Anyone have a contact at Fox to email about this?

Same here. The Simpsons halloween episode in early November was terrible. 1-2 second gaps every minute or less made it very frustrating to watch. I'm getting my HD feed through Comcast cable.

Has anyone noticed 59-1 having severe video/audio breakups the last two weeks? I've been trying to record Prison Break on my HR10-250 and it's unwatchable. It worked before just perfectly, now the last two weeks it's been terrible. I have a SS hooked up to my HR10-250 and am about 20 miles from the antennas down here near the Airport. I get great reception (except for the clicks/pops on 6-1 like others mentioned) yet 59-1 has been awful the last 2 weeks.

I monitored the signal strength and 13.1 which is frequency 46 is in the 90's for strength. 59-1, or frequency 45 is all over the board, from 15-65 in strength. They're nearly identical in distance and the same degree.

I wonder what is going on. Anyone have a contact at Fox to email about this?

According to Rick, there might be a problem on their end this time. I know that part of my problem is multipath related because I've also seen it on WRTV-DT and WFYI-DT, but I had a terrible time trying to watch one of the NFL games on WXIN-DT a week ago Sunday. It contained numerous dropouts. And Indy Jeff, thanks for your feedback. I'll pass that along to Rick, too, as his staff investigates.

............................................................ ........................................

Steve -

There may be something to this. We are not seeing this on our demods, but we did see something in one of our stream analyzers that might correlate to this. At the time we did not pursue the anomoly we saw as it did not seem to be affecting the air signal.

It would be interesting to know if the problem is with certain receivers such as the HR10. Meanwhile, we'll spend some more time trying to find this problem.

Rick

I'am interested in locating someone in Central Allen and Southern Marion counties (others are welcome to share information) that are willing to tune in WIPB-DT 52-1 real channel, or 49-1 listed channel. I would like to map the distance that viewers can receive WIPB-DT. This information is just for my own knowledge. Details on antenna height, antenna size as well as preamp information would be helpful.

Thanks Bill

Steve,

There's definitely something going on with 59-1 as I was trying to watch it just now and it still has bad problems. It's even in SD and is dropping audio/video like crazy. If Rick needs somebody to contact directly regarding this issue you can PM me his info and I'll call him tonight. Thanks a ton for forwarding this info on.

All,

Been reading here, I decided to register and post this. I'm in the Wabash Valley and until a few nights ago I was getting WTHI-DT perfect in HD. I was watching some show and all of sudden my STB kept re-booting and going crazy. I reset all data and every since cannot get it to lock in, even with a manual scan. The trouble is I have no other HD channels to check the box with. It is about 2 weeks old. I get 6 other channels ok but they are in SD. Anyone else having trouble with WTHI? My box is a Motorola HDT-101 with a silver sensor antenna. Signal strenth 77, Signal Quality = 100. Thanks.

All,

Been reading here, I decided to register and post this. I'm in the Wabash Valley and until a few nights ago I was getting WTHI-DT perfect in HD. I was watching some show and all of sudden my STB kept re-booting and going crazy. I reset all data and every since cannot get it to lock in, even with a manual scan. The trouble is I have no other HD channels to check the box with. It is about 2 weeks old. I get 6 other channels ok but they are in SD. Anyone else having trouble with WTHI? My box is a Motorola HDT-101 with a silver sensor antenna. Signal strenth 77, Signal Quality = 100. Thanks.
I watched the two hours of comedies last night and everything was good except for one minute of Two and a Half Men.

I've forwarded your post to Rick Poling at WXIN. I've been experiencing some of this over the past week too, but I usually do this time of year. I'm about 6 miles northeast of the tower in a fairly heavily wooded neighborhood and I seem to notice this every year as the leaves are falling. My theory is that given my close proximity to the tower, the leaves reduce the effects of multipath and then when they are gone there is nothing to block it. Multipath is usually the cause for wild and erratic signal fluctuations, as you described. The true signal and the slightly delayed signal (the effect from the multipath signal) confuses the receiver.

We'll see what Rick thinks about this and I'll post his comments. Thanks.

Steve

Steve,

WXIN's signal is bouncing all over the place on both my receivers down here.The Accurian is reading from 13-23db S/N.It's on their end.All the other stations are fine.

Greg B

All,

Been reading here, I decided to register and post this. I'm in the Wabash Valley and until a few nights ago I was getting WTHI-DT perfect in HD. I was watching some show and all of sudden my STB kept re-booting and going crazy. I reset all data and every since cannot get it to lock in, even with a manual scan. The trouble is I have no other HD channels to check the box with. It is about 2 weeks old. I get 6 other channels ok but they are in SD. Anyone else having trouble with WTHI? My box is a Motorola HDT-101 with a silver sensor antenna. Signal strenth 77, Signal Quality = 100. Thanks.


could be the weather tonight.

All,

Been reading here, I decided to register and post this. I'm in the Wabash Valley and until a few nights ago I was getting WTHI-DT perfect in HD. I was watching some show and all of sudden my STB kept re-booting and going crazy. I reset all data and every since cannot get it to lock in, even with a manual scan. The trouble is I have no other HD channels to check the box with. It is about 2 weeks old. I get 6 other channels ok but they are in SD. Anyone else having trouble with WTHI? My box is a Motorola HDT-101 with a silver sensor antenna. Signal strenth 77, Signal Quality = 100. Thanks.

CD, if you are still receiving 6 other channels thu the box it maybe the direction your antenna is pointed. While the silver sensor is very good for an indoor antenna your probably going to have to break down and get one for the outside. Living in Marshall means you're definitely on the fringe trying to pickup signals. As posted above weather/temperature/humidity all factor into what kind of signal you get.

Steve,

WXIN's signal is bouncing all over the place on both my receivers down here.The Accurian is reading from 13-23db S/N.It's on their end.All the other stations are fine.

Greg B

Greg, that's interesting. Last evening I watched Bones and House on WXIN-DT from 8-10 p.m. and I didn't see even one dropout or glitch. Last week I put up the XG91 from Antennas Direct with the CM preamp on the line and this was hooked to the new Sony SXRD with built-in tuner. I didn't try any of my other STBs last evening. I did forward your comment to Rick at WXIN.

I did find out from Rick that the station had a problem with its microwave setup the weekend of Nov. 5 - 6, but that problem was fixed on Monday, Nov. 7.

Steve

Goldrich

How about a quick overview on your new antenna setup and that apparently awesome new Sony SXRD set. Is this the 1080p set that is just out.

coolray

Rick Poling and I have been exchanging info today and he has been working on this situation, and after finding that only certain brands of receivers were experiencing problems, he began tracing it down. He now thinks he's cornered the problem and he may have it isolated by this evening. He'll notify at that time.

Steve

Goldrich

How about a quick overview on your new antenna setup and that apparently awesome new Sony SXRD set. Is this the 1080p set that is just out.

coolray

Coolray, I've been messing around with antennas and TV reception since I was a kid growing up in Kokomo in the 60's. I'm still messing around with various equipment. I still have my main antenna setup which includes the horizontally stacked Triax 100 antennas (UHF) @ 30 feet with a rotor and a CM preamp (designed and installed by MAX HD). I bought the Antennas Direct XG91 antenna last year and I decided to put it up again. It too is outdoors @ 25 feet with a rotor and a CM preamp on the line. As with virtually any antenna setup, some stations seem to be better with one of the setups and then other stations seem to be slightly better with the other setup. Most of the out-of-town stations I can receive are better with the Triax stack while a couple of the local/area stations seem a little better with the single XG91, which is almost identical in design to the Triax units. I also do a lot of experimenting with the CM 4221 and CM 4228.

Yes, the Sony SXRD is the new 1080p model that just came out a few weeks ago. I saw the 50" and 60" models next to the 70" Sony Qualia 006 at CEDIA in September. I was amazed at the great PQ on these units compared to the Qualia which has a MSRP of around 12 to $13,000. I bought the 60" and I've been very happy with it. It gives you lots of flexibility regarding settings. My 47" RPTV was 4 years old and this one really blows it away in sharpness and clarity. I'm really impressed with how great Fox-HD via WXIN-DT looks with the new Sony compared to how it looked on the older Panasonic (1080i). The recent World Series games were just amazing.

Steve

RWB - I am 25 miles from the Farmersburg antenna farm I would think I could get that on a coat hanger. They're broadcasting 1000 KW LOL! Amazingly enough, I haven't changed anything. Tonight I am now able to lock in to WTHI-DT in HD. To your point I am considering going with an outside antenna next spring. Probably XG91 as it seems to be the antenna of choice. Watching CSI now in HD it is great. What else am I missing LOL Thanks!!

RWB - I am 25 miles from the Farmersburg antenna farm I would think I could get that on a coat hanger. They're broadcasting 1000 KW LOL! Amazingly enough, I haven't changed anything. Tonight I am now able to lock in to WTHI-DT in HD. To your point I am considering going with an outside antenna next spring. Probably XG91 as it seems to be the antenna of choice. Watching CSI now in HD it is great. What else am I missing LOL Thanks!!


Cd, you might give it a shot and try to get 41.1 (Channel 15 out of Champaign, Illinois). They are broadcasting in HD and MondayNFootball really looks good.

My atenna does not move because it is only used for your channel. I'm sorry if you have been asked this several times before, but are there any plans for it to be on TWC?


Currently, no plans for TWC. It's all in the "legal dept." Not sure if TWC - Terre Jaute can even transport our stream even if they had our permission!

Let me know how your reception is going...

We are currently working on PSIP <contains your Electronic Program Guide info>. I dont think that would interfere with reception, although, if our clock is wrong <on the stream>, you may not have EPG!
Ken

Currently, no plans for TWC. It's all in the "legal dept." Not sure if TWC - Terre Jaute can even transport our stream even if they had our permission!

Let me know how your reception is going...

We are currently working on PSIP <contains your Electronic Program Guide info>. I dont think that would interfere with reception, although, if our clock is wrong <on the stream>, you may not have EPG!
Ken
Ken,

Can you tell me any more about why it is a legal issue? I live in an apartment so I just have an indoor antenna, which I would prefer to not need. If I had a large outdoor antenna, it wouldn't be an issue and I would probably prefer OTA. I'm still getting the steady 100 signal. I just noticed the minute it switched back to SD during Two and a Half Men liked I mentioned in a previous post.

Rick Poling and I have been exchanging info today and he has been working on this situation, and after finding that only certain brands of receivers were experiencing problems, he began tracing it down. He now thinks he's cornered the problem and he may have it isolated by this evening. He'll notify at that time.

Steve

Wow, thanks for taking care of this. I'll try and check it out later. I'll keep you posted.

Drum roll please......

Bright House Networks and McGraw Hill have just signed the agreement to provide ABC in HD. Our goal is to have the service on within the next day or two.

My parents live in Tipton, IN (south of Kokomo) and currently use "Amish TV" (rabbit ears, no cable, no satellite).

I am considering getting them a HD receiver so they can get better picture quality (not fuzzy) and hopefully a few more stations... even though they won't be using an HD TV. I have a few questions...

- Any recommendations for a simple to use HD receiver that will work for them?
- Will an interior attenna work or do they need an attic installed attenna work (2 story house)?
- They have an old (1979) attic antenna... will it work for HD?
- Should they be able to get any new channels/programming with HD (over analog)? or just just the addition X-2, X-3 channels?
- Is there an Indy HD channel listing anywhere? (I can't find one online).

Any suggestions/help/info would be greatly appreciated.

Brad

Ken,

Can you tell me any more about why it is a legal issue? I live in an apartment so I just have an indoor antenna, which I would prefer to not need. If I had a large outdoor antenna, it wouldn't be an issue and I would probably prefer OTA. I'm still getting the steady 100 signal. I just noticed the minute it switched back to SD during Two and a Half Men liked I mentioned in a previous post.


Cant say too much about the "legal" stuff except that TWC appearantly charges the customer for the 'free" OTA HD stuff. <more than the basic cable). Currently, they MUST CARRY our analog signal. Soon, the analogs will go away, and the cable operators will probably have to do the MUST CARRY for DTV.

I can tell you that the HD to SD switch occurs soon before a local break, or soon after the break is over. It has to do with how we implement our SD commercials on the DT channel. Being new technology, and the low number of DT viewers, that's how we are getting along right now. We are spending our money in the transmission system in order to complete our high power buildout before the FCC deadline next year. After transmission is complete, we'll probably begin upgrading the technical operation center.
Ken.

Drum roll please......

Bright House Networks and McGraw Hill have just signed the agreement to provide ABC in HD. Our goal is to have the service on within the next day or two.

Good news. As of Saturday I noticed that WRTV-DT is now available on ch. 706. Now Bright House is only lacking WXIN-DT, WTTV-DT and WNDY-DT as the remaining local HD outlets.


BTW, has native SD 4:3 vs. stretch-o-vision become a local game? The reason I ask is because WISH-DT has now reverted back to stretch-o-vision. Tom, what happened at WISH? Will the dominoes now fall back the other way at WRTV-DT and WTHR-DT? Please stay tuned for the next stretch-o-vision move.

Steve

BTW, has native SD 4:3 vs. stretch-o-vision become a local game? The reason I ask is because WISH-DT has now reverted back to stretch-o-vision. Tom, what happened at WISH? Will the dominoes now fall back the other way at WRTV-DT and WTHR-DT? Please stay tuned for the next stretch-o-vision move.

That sucks... I was just getting used to watching WISH news and other shows on the digital channel. Please PLEASE change it back!

bclarkso

Hello Brad

The Indy channel's that you should be able to recieve are as follows:

ABC WRTV 6.1 and 6.2
CBS WISH 8-1 thru 8-4
NBC WTHR 13-1 and 13-2
PBS WIPB 49-1 and 49-2
FOX WXIN 59-1
UPN WNDY 23-1

and possibly

PBS WFYI 20-1 thru 20-4
WB WTTK 29-1

You maybe able to pick-up some of the above on the "old " existing antenna but if not then an amplified indoor antenna may work or you may have to install an outdoor antenna. There are just so many variables in finding the right combination to get a constant signal that you just have to keep trying different combnations until you hit it just right.

You will NOT be able to see HD programming on an analog set, but you will be able to get the "digital channels" to display a 480i picture on your analog set. And it should be a marked improvement over what they are watching now.

I am surprised that someone much more knowledgeable than I had not answered you yet, but I am sure they will, as this is a great forum for getting just the kind of information you are asking for.

Hope this helps a little bit

coolray

Having to switch my STB to "pillarbox" for WISH alone because they are stretching the picture when they are not in HD will not happen in my house because this lowers WAF of HD big time. She will switch to satellite in a heartbeat for the entire evening in order to get a proper picture, HD or not. And I hear that those with built in HD or cable don't even have the pillarbox option. Going back to a stretched picture is a big, big, mistake. At least in my house. I'll miss the HD on 8. So sad.

Everyone stay calm <g>.

We had to reboot the upconverter over the weekend, and it apparently picked the first of 5 presets to reconfigure itself on boot-up. That was our original setup, with stretch. It's now been fixed, and I'll copy this preset over to the first one, so things should remain stable even if we have to reboot again in the future (it IS a computer, after all!).

Regards,
Tom Weber
Engineering
WISH, WNDY, et al.

Thanks for the reply, Tom. I'm certainly glad to hear that the temporary stretch-o-vision has nothing to do with the CMA Awards Show last Tuesday not being in HD. Since it was apparently televised in SD and not in stretch mode that evening, I thought maybe some of the viewers had complained that Dolly Parton appeared too "flat." <g>

A radio engineer I used to work with once said that he'd only be half of his current age if he hadn't spent so much time waiting on computers to reboot!!

Steve

(Slightly off-topic - but worth it!)

Speaking of time, someone has proposed "Daily Savings Time." It works like this:

Every afternoon at 3:30, you set your clocks ahead 1 hour. Nothing truly worthwhile happens after 3:30 at work anyway, so we just eliminate the extra hour of useless time at work.

Then, to revert back, you wait until 3:30 in the morning. Set the clock back 1 hour, and get an extra hour's sleep.

A solution just for us Hoosiers <g>!

Hi,

I've just ordered my first HD STB (yea!). I live in Carmel (near 131st and Gray) and I was wondering what kind of channels I should expect to get using the OTA input. I'm currently using a multi-element (about 4 ft long) Radio Shack antenna to get the analog channels. I don't have a dish or cable connection.

Thanks.

(Slightly off-topic - but worth it!)

Speaking of time, someone has proposed "Daily Savings Time." It works like this:

Every afternoon at 3:30, you set your clocks ahead 1 hour. Nothing truly worthwhile happens after 3:30 at work anyway, so we just eliminate the extra hour of useless time at work.

Then, to revert back, you wait until 3:30 in the morning. Set the clock back 1 hour, and get an extra hour's sleep.

A solution just for us Hoosiers <g>!I'll go for that!

JL
(In Elkhart County - 5 miles from St Joseph County and the proposed time line.)

jlentz,

I'm sure there are other Carmelites who can help with OTA. I live real close to you and I tried OTA with indoor antennas and gave up. I stuck with cable. I've been griping to Brighthouse for over a year, and just this week they finally added channel 6. So we now get ABC, CBS, and NBC. With the HD package I also get TNT and ESPN. Now if we can only get Fox and WB.

Hi,

I've just ordered my first HD STB (yea!). I live in Carmel (near 131st and Gray) and I was wondering what kind of channels I should expect to get using the OTA input. I'm currently using a multi-element (about 4 ft long) Radio Shack antenna to get the analog channels. I don't have a dish or cable connection.

Thanks.

I live near 146th and US 31. I have a Channel Master 4228 in my attic. I receive 6, 8, 13, 20, 29, 59 and 63. (and their digital equivalents). My antenna is pointed south southwest, so I haven't tried to get any of the other channels.

You should have similar results, I would think.

Jim

jlentz,

I'm sure there are other Carmelites who can help with OTA. I live real close to you and I tried OTA with indoor antennas and gave up. I stuck with cable. I've been griping to Brighthouse for over a year, and just this week they finally added channel 6. So we now get ABC, CBS, and NBC. With the HD package I also get TNT and ESPN. Now if we can only get Fox and WB.

Thanks for the reply. I get most analog channels really well with my attic antenna, I'm hoping the digital ones come in good too. I should get my tuner on Monday, so I'll be able to ask more specific questions after I get it hooked up. I'm hoping to pick up the WB feed (kid's cartoons) from the WXIN location. I'll have to wait and see.

John

I live near 146th and US 31. I have a Channel Master 4228 in my attic. I receive 6, 8, 13, 20, 29, 59 and 63. (and their digital equivalents). My antenna is pointed south southwest, so I haven't tried to get any of the other channels.

You should have similar results, I would think.

Jim

Thanks. I'm going to try to get channel 4 (or some WB channel) too. I was wondering if a separate yagi antenna pointed directly at the WXIN tower might work.

John

Thanks. I'm going to try to get channel 4 (or some WB channel) too. I was wondering if a separate yagi antenna pointed directly at the WXIN tower might work.

John

FYI, channel 29 is WB. WTTK(okomo), instead of WTTV, I believe. Mirror programming to channel 4.

Thanks. I'm going to try to get channel 4 (or some WB channel) too. I was wondering if a separate yagi antenna pointed directly at the WXIN tower might work.

John

FWIW, just keep in mind that reception results, from one location to another, can vary as much as our Indiana weather. Most (not all) reviews I've read indicate that UHF yagi antennas are a better choice when used outdoors and that UHF bowtie (dipole reflector) antennas are a better choice when used indoors (attic). Attic installations can be great or they can be very frustrating because virtually everything in your attic (wiring, heating/cooling ducts, walls, beams, etc.) becomes a part of the antenna, thus affecting its receiving ability.

If you experience a lot of ghosting on analogs stations, this usually indicates you have some serious multipath issues. With this in mind, if you are debating between the Channel Master 4221 (4-Bay) and the Channel Master 4228 (8-Bay), the 4228 has been shown to be the better choice. Several years ago I found this to be true at my location, and several antenna reviews have pointed this out, too.

Don't forget all the great antenna information available through this AVS Forum post....http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=546066&page=1

Some additional great info.................

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html (updated 10/05)

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html


BTW, WTTK-29 and WTTK-DT 54 (29.1 HD and 29.2 SD, with one transmitter at the WXIN-59 tower and another transmitter at the WTTK-29 tower in Windfall (Tipton Co.) simply rebroadcast WTTV-4 and WTTV-DT 48 (4.1), WB.

Steve

Off topic here but a rookie again,

I just purchased a MITS 65815 and was wanting to know some suggestions for a good indoor antenna to use with it .

I thought the TV was a great deal at Fry's.

Thanks for any advice.

If you experience a lot of ghosting on analogs stations, this usually indicates you have some serious multipath issues. With this in mind, if you are debating between the Channel Master 4221 (4-Bay) and the Channel Master 4228 (8-Bay), the 4228 has been shown to be the better choice. Several years ago I found this to be true at my location, and several antenna reviews have pointed this out, too.
Steve

Thanks. I've been reading up on those the past couple of days. It seems like using the 4228 as a start is a good first step. Is there a place locally that sells those for a good price? Or should I just get one mailorder (one place had it for $49)?

Thanks again,

John

I have a friend of mine that gets them locally for his business. His business is Attic Antenna, If your interested his number is in the book and he can get you what you need. He installs HDTV antennas and home theater systems.

I got the last ws-65815 that Fry's had friday. What a deal!!! MikeR.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some assistance. I live in muncie (area code 47304) and can currently get 13, 11, 6 and pbs in (hd) using my indoor antenna but cannot pick up 8 (wish tv). Is there anything I can do antenna wise to pick 8 up? Any help would be appreciated.

I have a friend of mine that gets them locally for his business. His business is Attic Antenna, If your interested his number is in the book and he can get you what you need. He installs HDTV antennas and home theater systems.

I got the last ws-65815 that Fry's had friday. What a deal!!! MikeR.

Attic Antenna did my OTA installation before I switched to cable. The guy did a really professional job with the wiring, really knew his stuff, and all the channels came in beautifully. Highly recommended for anyone who isn't a do-it-yourself type... :)

Jeff

FYI, my friend bought a $50 antenna and put it in his attic and he lives in kokomo about 50 miles away from Indy. I brought my old RCA DTC-100 and we picked up all the major channels.

To the guy that isn't getting 8 in Muncie, 8 is in VHF maybe your attenna is UHF only?

Thanks. I've been reading up on those the past couple of days. It seems like using the 4228 as a start is a good first step. Is there a place locally that sells those for a good price? Or should I just get one mailorder (one place had it for $49)?

Thanks again,

John

A few years ago when I was looking for a CM 4228 the only place I could find one in Indy was King Electronics, 1711 Southeastern Ave., 639-1484. This place has been there for years and carries a wide variety of antenna cables and accessories.

Steve

Thanks for the info. I'll call around tomorrow.

I just bought a new mitsubishi with built in HD nad purchased a channel master antenna. The problem is I can only get ABC, none of the other networks will come in. I have the antenna mounted on the roof so there are no issues with interference. I do live within about 75-100 feet of some electrical lines. The other thing is the channels don't even come in well at all in analog, very snowy. The cable was here previously from the prior owners, so if the cable is bad would that keep only certain channels from being received. WHat could some of the other problems be? I am south of Indy in greenwood, zip 46143. I would appreciate any help because I got this with the understanding my wife could watch her shows in HD. Luckily I'm getting ABC so I can at least watch the Colts tonight.
TIA
Kevin

I was hoping to watch the game in HD as well.. unfortunately for the last two weeks (after the Patriots game, which was fine) I've had nothing but trouble with WRTV-HD.

Anyone else have trouble? The signal seems to be all over the place (0-70) yet WTHR and WXIN were solid (70-90 on my DTC100). Nothing but dropouts during the game here in New Pal.

(Channel Master Stealth - Outside, two feet above two-story roof - WFYI, WXIN, WTHR, WNDY, even WISH [VHF] strong)

(BTW: GREAT GAME! even on cable.. GO COLTS!!)

I would replace the cable that attaches to the antenna. I suspect that will fix your problems. Mike/KD9RG

Would suspect that but my antenna has only been up for about a month. Brand new RG-6 gold.

I was hoping to watch the game in HD as well.. unfortunately for the last two weeks (after the Patriots game, which was fine) I've had nothing but trouble with WRTV-HD.

The HD signal is really good through Comcast cable, for what it's worth.

If anyone can get feedback to WRTV engineering, they seem to have a volume problem on their SD broadcasts lately. This happens on commercials and other non-HD shows -- the volume will be fine, and then it will suddenly drop back. Then it gradually gets louder until the next time it drops back.

It seems to happen every few minutes.

The HD signal is really good through Comcast cable, for what it's worth.

Yeah, but I'm not about to go to the next level with my cable co. (Insight) I already spend over $75 a month with them :eek:

If anyone can get feedback to WRTV engineering, they seem to have a volume problem on their SD broadcasts lately. This happens on commercials and other non-HD shows -- the volume will be fine, and then it will suddenly drop back. Then it gradually gets louder until the next time it drops back.

It seems to happen every few minutes.

Noticed that myself but can't help there, I know Joest, Poling, Weber and Bishop but sadly, no one at RTV...

Heck, don't even know if they're still at the same stations... Been out of the game for 10 or so years ;)

Dorunrun- Did it work when it was first put up? Did you buy the cable with the connectors on it? This is pretty simple, either the antenna is defective or the cable is bad. Check to make sure that the center conductor of the cable is protruding at least to the end of the cable connector. Sorry to make this sound so simple and not meaning to insult you at all. I have just learned from doing this as a video tinkerer and Ham operator for 30 years that if the antenna is good it is usually the cable or connectors. Hope this helps/ Mike/KD9RG

The signal seems to be all over the place (0-70) yet WTHR and WXIN were solid (70-90 on my DTC100). Nothing but dropouts during the game here in New Pal.

(Channel Master Stealth - Outside, two feet above two-story roof - WFYI, WXIN, WTHR, WNDY, even WISH [VHF] strong)

(BTW: GREAT GAME! even on cable.. GO COLTS!!)

"The signal seems to be all over the place" USUALLY indicates a multi-path situation. I'm not familiar with that particular CM antenna but I know from personal experience that the Channel Master 4221 (4-bay bowtie) is bad with multi-path. As mentioned at a previous post, the CM 4228 (8-bay bowtie) is much better at dealing with multi-path issues.

I live 5 miles from most of the towers and four years ago when I got my first STB, the DTC100, and I put up my first outdoor antenna, the CM 4221, I got "0", that's zero signal from WXIN-DT, which was transmitting with 200kW at the time. I then replaced it with the CM 4228 and the signal was fine. The various multi-path signals entering the receiver totally confused it and as a result cancelled all signals.

Steve

"The signal seems to be all over the place" USUALLY indicates a multi-path situation.
Steve
My only issue with that is that most of the other stations, that I still have a solid reception on, are from the same antenna farm- roughly 309° from NP. Now I know it's not a perfect measure, but their signal strength today doesn't deviate more that 5 or so.

Also, remember that I was getting RTV quite well for the first couple of weeks.

Was really hoping that I wasn't alone last night- would save me a great deal of troubleshooting though, so far, have checked to see that my antenna was not blown off course and there has been no damage to it or the cable.. Given that, and weather conditions being similar, I still suspect that it has something to do with their sig.

I could be wrong though- have been before :p If no one else had problems last night, it's probably me.. I'll check again- thanks

He's right - wildly fluctuating usually indicates multipath. You are lucky that most stations are solid. But you are unlucky in that the geometry between your antenna and RTV's tower together with the wavelength of their DTV signal intermix and add together in a bad way for you - not enough direct signal and/or too much reflected signal. Reflected signals take longer to reach your antenna, and the 'delta' between 2 signals can add constructively (not a problem) or destructively (seems to be your problem). The symptom "signal was quite well" and now isn't is puzzling. Can you remember anything that could now be causing reflections or anything that could now_not_be allowing enough direct signal (any new construction?? change in terrain or foilage??)?

No, I sure can't think, nor have I seen, any changes in the landscape George, and if anything, there is less foliage. (lots of trees here) Still, there is about 20 miles between me and the farm, it is certainly a possibility.

If I get adventerous anytime soon, I'll take a look -or perhaps I'll simply add some height on my rig to see if that helps.

By the way, there is a three story home near my line of sight.. didn't give it much thought at first since it worked fine after the initial install, still could be a culprit- hence the height adjustment thought.

Gotta get this figured out. There is still some football left and they are carrying the Super Bowl after all!

MachWon - maybe using an analog t.v. connected to your problem antenna you could tune to WFYI ch. 20 which comes from same location as WRTV's ch. 25 DTV and judge from the quality of ch. 20 what might be the problem. You should get a crystal clear picture with no fine ghosting or jitter or anything nasty. Wildly fluctuating signal strength is indicating how hard your decoder is working to produce a picture. Multipath (ghosting) is one problem that causes decoders to work real hard. If ch. 20 looks great, then something else is causing your decoder to work real hard - but if the problem was in the WRTV transport stream, then others would be having problems, too. (And certain models of decoders are pickier than others - and maybe your model is one of the pickier ones.)

That's a good idea George. I'll certainly try that. Have to find one though (actually just got rid of my last one this summer!)

I'm guessing that it will be an obstruction issue as WFYI has been a little flakey in the past (re-aim settled it down)

As to the DTC100 being picky? Well, haven't heard of it being so, but it is one of the older ones...

Cheers!

-Jim

If anyone can get feedback to WRTV engineering, they seem to have a volume problem on their SD broadcasts lately. This happens on commercials and other non-HD shows -- the volume will be fine, and then it will suddenly drop back. Then it gradually gets louder until the next time it drops back.

It seems to happen every few minutes.

IndyJeff, I've noticed the same thing via Bright House, since this cable company started offering WRTV-DT a little over a week ago. To date I have not noticed this audio situation from my STB via OTA. I have forwarded your post along with my comments to Paul Roehm at WRTV. I'll post his reply.

Also, while I'm on this subject, has anyone else with Bright House noticed some occasional brief video dropouts of WRTV-DT on channel 706? I noticed a few dropouts last evening during MNF. I only see this via Bright House, and not when I'm watching through my STB via OTA. I'm not sure how the WRTV-DT signal is fed to Bright House (direct feed vs. OTA).

Steve

IndyJeff, I've noticed the same thing via Bright House, since this cable company started offering WRTV-DT a little over a week ago. To date I have not noticed this audio situation from my STB via OTA. I have forwarded your post along with my comments to Paul Roehm at WRTV. I'll post his reply.

Also, while I'm on this subject, has anyone else with Bright House noticed some occasional brief video dropouts of WRTV-DT on channel 706? I noticed a few dropouts last evening during MNF. I only see this via Bright House, and not when I'm watching through my STB via OTA. I'm not sure how the WRTV-DT signal is fed to Bright House (direct feed vs. OTA).

Steve

There were a couple of glitches that I saw during the game last night (again, Comcast). I didn't watch the whole game from start to finish, but there was a big glitch right after the first Colts touchdown -- lots of scrambled video and audio. Then they went to commercial and when they came back it was fine.

The only other problem I remember from the parts of the broadcast that I saw was a couple of very brief audio dropouts.

Jeff

goldrich
Hey Steve

I have always had dropouts with audio and sometimes a small, brief amount of pixelation but it is the only channel that happens on. I don't watch much WRTV, but I do watch MNF and it has been the same problem week after week for a long time now. Last night was no exception.

coolray

I've had some audio drop outs with channel 6.1 and sometimes Fox and seems to be program related (for 6.1) in that on one program it's there on another it goes away.

Hey I'm here on the NW side of Indy and I've got a RCA dtc-100 on rabbit ears and am picking of 29.1 WTTK-DT. AM I picking this up from Kokomo 40 miles away? on rabbit ears?

I've had some audio drop outs with channel 6.1 and sometimes Fox and seems to be program related (for 6.1) in that on one program it's there on another it goes away.

Hey I'm here on the NW side of Indy and I've got a RCA dtc-100 on rabbit ears and am picking of 29.1 WTTK-DT. AM I picking this up from Kokomo 40 miles away? on rabbit ears?

As far as I know, WTTK-DT is coming from the WXIN tower in downtown Indy.
I managed to get it from my house in Carmel, using one of the cheaper Radio Shack antennas - the model 75 combo UHF/VHF job. The signal quality isn't great, but it did come in beautifully. I can barely get the analog signal coming from Bloomington.

Off topic subject here , but I just purchased a WS Mitsubishi 65815 and am going to sell my WS Mitsubishi 55511 .

Any ideas on what would be a FAIR asking price?

Thanks again for your help.

Off topic subject here , but I just purchased a WS Mitsubishi 65815 and am going to sell my WS Mitsubishi 55511 .

Any ideas on what would be a FAIR asking price?

I've no idea but why not look to see what they've been selling for on eBay? Pretty good indication on what the market will bear.

I got a Channel Master 4228 to see if it would improve my reception compared to the Radio Shack antenna I've used for analog. It didn't seem to help me. If someone would like it ($50) PM or email me, otherwise I'll be taking it back.

John

Steve,

I have noticed the brief drop-outs on RTV Brighthouse 706. I guess I am just so happy to be getting the station that I can live with the minor annoyances for now. We still need Fox.

Jerry