I actually spoke [to] Rick yesterday afternoon. He confirmed they did in fact make a change exactly when my listings stopped updating earlier this month ... He said I was the only person in the area to call and if there was a problem on his end he would have expected to receive many more calls than just myself.
I just sent my own note to Rick Finnie pointing out that the TVGOS eight-day cache has barely expired, and that few TVGOS end-users would ever contact WILL about a failure because they do not know (and should not need to know) about host stations. Many will just go away, unhappy with Gemstar and/or their CE vendor. If sufficiently frustrated, they might eventually contract an STB.

If it weren't for AVS, think how much more frustrated we would be this weekend!

I noticed a reset late June with my Panny DMR-EH50. I had to completely reset the unit to restore the tv guide. For Panny’s reset, press ch up and ch down buttons at the same time while powered up. Shut unit off to set time, about half a hour. Turn on, set zip code and cable. Turn off overnight. Turn on next day, select first line up option, for use with no cable box in CU.

Has anyone else noticed that Channel 27-1 (WCCU) is now completely dead? Was working fine since I got my antenna hooked up at the end of June. I have the Terk Amplified HDTV Indoor Antenna and I live in southwestern Champaign. It's the only Fox channel that I can get in HD out here . . .

Yes, I noticed that 27.1 was off the air last night. I can't get fox dt on my cable box (Mediacon), either. Was going to call the cable company to complain, but maybe there is nothing they can do about it. I still get channel 55.1 out of Springfield, but 27 is MIA.

Mel

Yeah, I can't get 55-1 with my indoor antenna. Too far away I think. In the signal strength screen on my DirecTV HD receiver, I had one spot where I got it at 50% on one of the two tuners, but I only have one antenna, so I can't even figure out why two tuners are showing up . . .

BTW, I would still call the cable company, if enough people complain, they can put pressure on the station to get back on the air more quickly I'd think.

I am getting 55 from an indoor antenna in my garage pointing SE...it's a Radio Shack model that has been discontinued. As far as Mediacon goes, I'm sure they won't care a lot about my problems. Their customer service center is somewhere near LaSalle-Peru and half the time when I call with a complaint, they have no idea about what is going on down here in Mahomet. I don't want to spend an hour on hold only to be told that they are working on the problem. RIGHT. Some people can get 43 out of Bloomington, if you haven't tried that. I've never had any luck with it but I haven't tried in a while, either. Good Luck.

Mel

No Fox for me either. So much for watching Jurassic Park in HD tonight. :(

No Fox for me either. So much for watching Jurassic Park in HD tonight. :(

WYZZ FOX doesn't even have the HD turned on for channel 43. Everyone else isn't seeing HD, so you're not missing anything.

PrairieWind,

Have you heard anything from Rick on our TV Guide issues (or seen any changes on your end)? I haven't touched the DVR much this weekend, mostly because I didn't want to tinker and make things worse.

I'll call him this afternoon to see if he has finally been convinced the problem is at the station. Hopefully, he's gotten more feeback from users in the area but, like you said, most folks won't even know what a host station is let alone know who to call.


I just sent my own note to Rick Finnie pointing out that the TVGOS eight-day cache has barely expired, and that few TVGOS end-users would ever contact WILL about a failure because they do not know (and should not need to know) about host stations. Many will just go away, unhappy with Gemstar and/or their CE vendor. If sufficiently frustrated, they might eventually contract an STB.

If it weren't for AVS, think how much more frustrated we would be this weekend!

WYZZ FOX doesn't even have the HD turned on for channel 43. Everyone else isn't seeing HD, so you're not missing anything.

Sorry, I was referring to 27.1, WCCU. I should have been clearer.

I noticed a reset late June with my Panny DMR-EH50. I had to completely reset the unit to restore the tv guide.

Since I had no issues before July, if you have full eight-day listings today, we may be using different host channels. Jstefans and I are dealing with the apparent WILL-TV12 host station outage that has persisted since about July 3.

Offline, I have located another user who promises to contact WILL about this. Anyone else affected? If so, please speak up here and contact the station. (will-tv@uiuc.edu, or 217-333-1070).

I called and left a message with Rick but did not hear back from him today. I will call him back tomorrow morning.

I assume you've had no change in status on your end.


Since I had no issues before July, if you have full eight-day listings today, we may be using different host channels. Jstefans and I are dealing with the apparent WILL-TV12 host station outage that has persisted since about July 3.

Offline, I have located another user who promises to contact WILL about this. Anyone else affected? If so, please speak up here and contact the station. (will-tv@uiuc.edu, or 333-1070).

I wasn't getting 27-1 for a week or so either, but I just started getting 55-1. I'm in Champaign.

I wasn't getting 27-1 for a week or so either, but I just started getting 55-1. I'm in Champaign.
Same with my QAM tuner, although I can't check and see if it works because I can't find TV remote right now.

Can anyone else verify no signal from Fox 27.1? This has been going on for nearly 2 weeks! I have an OTA antenna an have always received 27.1. Funny thing is that my signal meter has registered in the 90-98 signal strength, but no video or audio. Can anyone at all help me with this, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

jeff

Can anyone else verify no signal from Fox 27.1? This has been going on for nearly 2 weeks! I have an OTA antenna an have always received 27.1. Funny thing is that my signal meter has registered in the 90-98 signal strength, but no video or audio. Can anyone at all help me with this, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

jeff
It comes up when I search for it with my QAM tuner in Decatur, but it does not have video or sound.

Can anyone else verify no signal from Fox 27.1? This has been going on for nearly 2 weeks! I have an OTA antenna an have always received 27.1. Funny thing is that my signal meter has registered in the 90-98 signal strength, but no video or audio. Can anyone at all help me with this, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

jeff

I'm getting a 100 signal strength indicator in East Urbana, but no actual picture or audio.

I just called and spoke with someone in sales at WCCU (there's no directory entry for engineering or technical issues) and this was the first she had heard about it. She said she would pass the message on to the station engineer right away...

I have insight cable in Champaign and I was wondering what has been going on with FOX HD that past week or so. No picture or sound

I have insight cable in Champaign and I was wondering what has been going on with FOX HD that past week or so. No picture or sound

It's off on cable as well?

Wow, I assumeed it was a broadcast issue...

Still no response from WILL about the TVGOS blackout. Jstefans, please check your Private Messages. Unless others on this thread are affected, we may as well pursue the matter via PM, and just report results or new issues here.

I'm a UIUC student living up in the Chicago 'burbs, but I just bought an HDTV with QAM tuner, and I'm going to be putting it on Insight once I move back down there in August. I've looked over the last few pages of this thread, but it sounds like things have been going back and forth... What's the current situation with pulling HD stations in the clear?

In Urbana I'm now receiving FOX loud and clear on ch 26 as 55.1 WRSP, not 27.1 WCCU. WRSP still comes in off the Springfield broadcast as well - weaker here of course.
Mike

Yeah, I have Insight and i havent been getting the digital (ch. 910) WCCU for almost 2 weeks now. the analog (ch. 11) comes in fine. I tried calling them too (theyre not listed in the phone book) and no option to speak with the technical people there. Its as if they don't want to be bothered with the myriad of problems they have. Ive lived in C-U my whole life. WCCU has always been subpar in quality. It has a long history of signal failures.

I'm watching the 3rd round of the British open on ABC (15.1) in Champaign. I posted last week that I was seeing problems while watching Monsters Inc., and one of those problems is still continuing. There seems to be "moving" white spots all over the picture. I've never seen anything quite like this, and I'm not sure what the cause could be. I have a D* HR20, but I do not have this issue with any other HD channels, or OTA HD locals. Not sure what to do. Is anyone else noticing this?

I'm watching the 3rd round of the British open on ABC (15.1) in Champaign. I posted last week that I was seeing problems while watching Monsters Inc., and one of those problems is still continuing. There seems to be "moving" white spots all over the picture. I've never seen anything quite like this, and I'm not sure what the cause could be. I have a D* HR20, but I do not have this issue with any other HD channels, or OTA HD locals. Not sure what to do. Is anyone else noticing this?

Golf balls? :D


J/K. I watched it on 15.1 all morning and didn't see anything.

Andy, I have the same little white specs on 15.1. Ive had them for a couple of weeks at least. When I first noticed them there was also signal break up with the specs.

Golf balls? :D


J/K. I watched it on 15.1 all morning and didn't see anything.

:p - I suppose I left that wide open :)

Andy, I have the same little white specs on 15.1. Ive had them for a couple of weeks at least. When I first noticed them there was also signal break up with the specs.

I noticed the signal break up last week as well. I suppose the next step would be to contact WICD. Thanks!

Contact info for WCCU:

http://www.myfoxchampaign.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=3247450&version=10&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=5.1.1

Yeah, I have Insight and i havent been getting the digital (ch. 910) WCCU for almost 2 weeks now. the analog (ch. 11) comes in fine. I tried calling them too (theyre not listed in the phone book) and no option to speak with the technical people there. Its as if they don't want to be bothered with the myriad of problems they have. Ive lived in C-U my whole life. WCCU has always been subpar in quality. It has a long history of signal failures.

If you go to WCCU's website you can email the engineering department. I did this last week. The response I got was that equipment for WCCU was hit with lightning a couple of weeks ago. They didn't give me a time-line as to when the HD signal for WCCU would be back. Has anone contacted Insight to see if they will be broadcasting the Springfield station's FOX signal?

I just noticed someone has provided a link to WCCU's website. When you email them be sure to choose Engineering/Technical in the topic line.

I'm a UIUC student living up in the Chicago 'burbs, but I just bought an HDTV with QAM tuner ... What's the current situation with pulling HD stations in the clear?

I leave it to others to answer that (I use a cablecard to remap Insight's channel classification scheme for my tuner, and that works fine). But be advised that, come November, Comcast will take over from Insight in Illinois. So back at you: how well does Comcast serve its non-STB customers?

This is for Directv subscribers who are also Chicago baseball fans...I discovered this just recently. When you hear that Comcast or WGN will be broadcasting the game in HD, do yourself a favor and check the program guide on channels 94, 730, & 731. They sometimes will show the game on these channels in HD and you don't have to subscribe to the MLB package to receive them. (You probably have to subscribe to the HD package however). Non-Chicago games however, are scrambled. Even though it isn't all the time, it will at least give us a few games in HD until they activate our area during the upcoming HD expansion. Does anyone know if the Directv 10 satellite that was recently launched will take care of our area, or will we be waiting until January's launch of Directv 11?

I'm a UIUC student living up in the Chicago 'burbs, but I just bought an HDTV with QAM tuner, and I'm going to be putting it on Insight once I move back down there in August. I've looked over the last few pages of this thread, but it sounds like things have been going back and forth... What's the current situation with pulling HD stations in the clear?

As a previous post points out - we will be Comcast by the end of the year, if not sooner.
That being said, all local HD OTA's & any SD digital broadcast channels (such as WAND doppler, WILL Create, etc) are in clear QAM now & should remain that way. Unfortunately, Insight just encrypted all the Music Choice, so it's no longer in clear QAM.

This is for Directv subscribers who are also Chicago baseball fans...I discovered this just recently. When you hear that Comcast or WGN will be broadcasting the game in HD, do yourself a favor and check the program guide on channels 94, 730, & 731. They sometimes will show the game on these channels in HD and you don't have to subscribe to the MLB package to receive them. (You probably have to subscribe to the HD package however). Non-Chicago games however, are scrambled. Even though it isn't all the time, it will at least give us a few games in HD until they activate our area during the upcoming HD expansion. Does anyone know if the Directv 10 satellite that was recently launched will take care of our area, or will we be waiting until January's launch of Directv 11?

CSN is available at no cost for most in this area since it is the "regional" sport network that covers this area (much to the disdain of us Cardinals fans). So any games on there, CSN (Channel 640), will be available. D** does put 1 or 2 random games a night on the mid-90's channels though. But you are correct that you need the HD package.

As for the locals being upgraded to HD, I believe the info I've seen leads me to think they'll be available after Directv11 is launched and activated. Good news on that is that the launch had been thought to be next year, but Sea Launch website has it down for launch late this year. And yes, the Champaign, Decatur, and Springfield demographic area should be on the list for the new MPEG-4 HD locals.

If you haven't done so yet, you'll need the new 5-lnb dish plus a MPEG-4 capable receiver, such as the HR-20 DVR, H-20 Non-DVR, or the brand new HR-21 to get these signals. And you'll only need the 1 dish. not 2 like now.

I leave it to others to answer that (I use a cablecard to remap Insight's channel classification scheme for my tuner, and that works fine). But be advised that, come November, Comcast will take over from Insight in Illinois. So back at you: how well does Comcast serve its non-STB customers?

So, I don't know how detailed I can get because I'm not a Comcast customer (happen to live in Schaumburg where we have 2 cable providers, and our house is with the other company...), but here's what Comcast is up to... All HD braodcast stations are clear.

They are pulling some other funny business in the near future however... Currently in Chicago, and coming in the next few months to the 'burbs, they are killing all analog channels except for the broadcast channels. So if you've got a QAM tuner or STB, you're fine (except for learning all of the funky channel numbers), but analog TVs will only get the broadcast channels. Doesn't sound like that's had any effect on HD Clear stations though. This was to deal with the fact that they're out of bandwidth. If Comcast is taking over the system down there, I would guess it won't be too long 'till they kill analog down there too.

CSN is available at no cost for most in this area since it is the "regional" sport network that covers this area (much to the disdain of us Cardinals fans).

Not sure if you are talking SD or HD, but for SD, Fox Midwest is now "officially" part of our RSN lineup in our area on DBS, like it is on all cable systems around here. You NO longer need the extra Sports Pak on D* (or the Multi-sport pak on E*) to get Fox Midwest, as it comes as part of your basic package along w/CSNC.
As far as FSMW in HD, if D* ever decides to put it up at all, I see no reason why we would not also get the Cards in HD as well, as part of our package.

And you'll only need the 1 dish. not 2 like now.

Only the local HD channels will be carried on the new HD birds - any of our locals that will NOT be up in HD (like WCFN, which will probably not be going HD at all, or the PBS stations, of which there is no timetable for HD carriage on DBS) will still require the 2nd dish, unless you don't care about seeing them at all. ;)

I noticed the signal break up last week as well. I suppose the next step would be to contact WICD. Thanks!

i emailed them about the issue. haven't received a response yet.

My Panny had been lucky to get a 2 day lead for the last week or so, but now it is up to 5 days or so. My guess is that Gemstar pushed the first several days to get the guide back after the change over. I did see an ad indicating it may take a week to get all 8 days…probably pushed to the CMI market.

As for the Comcast takeover, I’ll wait and see…if they eliminate the analog line up, Dish seems an option. The Panny has a cable box mouse…

I'm watching the 3rd round of the British open on ABC (15.1) in Champaign. I posted last week that I was seeing problems while watching Monsters Inc., and one of those problems is still continuing. There seems to be "moving" white spots all over the picture.
I'm seeing the same thing on WICDDT, 908 via Insight. It's odd seeing snow like that on a digital channel. Maybe it's happening before it gets sent out to us, because the signal strength seems fine.

-TBK

Hi folks.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I wanted local AV fans to know that I've got my NEC XG135 CRT projector for sale cheap ($500) in the AVS "displays for sale" section. If any of you might be interested in trying front CRT projection for a relatively small investment, I can demo the projector for you at my house in Savoy, at least for the next few days until I get my new one.

John C.

Here is the response I received from WCCU concerning HD signal:

'Due to a direct lightning hit at WRSP/WCCU-TV/DT Master Control facilities in Springfield, WCCU-DT has been broadcasting the digital signal of WRSP-DT. At long last, the equipment has been repaired and re-installed, thus providing the proper signal to WCCU-DT area of reception. To, again, receive the WCCU-DT transmission, please “re-scan” the tuner of your system. This is required to obtain the new broadcast PSIP information we modified during the equipment outage. '

Here is the response I received from WCCU concerning HD signal:

'Due to a direct lightning hit at WRSP/WCCU-TV/DT Master Control facilities in Springfield, WCCU-DT has been broadcasting the digital signal of WRSP-DT. At long last, the equipment has been repaired and re-installed, thus providing the proper signal to WCCU-DT area of reception. To, again, receive the WCCU-DT transmission, please “re-scan” the tuner of your system. This is required to obtain the new broadcast PSIP information we modified during the equipment outage. '

I wonder if this was an ongoing problem even before the lightning strike.

Before I was having problems picking up the DT signal, they were fully simulcasting WRSP's signal, including WRSP's commercials and the Springfield version of Newschannel at 9.

Has anybody had any luck after doing the rescan. I tried it last night, but still couldn't get WCCU-DT to show up. I also noticed that the fox dt signal on Mediacon was screwed up last night....not sure for how long, since I was only flipping thru channels and the picture was frozen.

Mel

Has anybody had any luck after doing the rescan. I tried it last night, but still couldn't get WCCU-DT to show up. I also noticed that the fox dt signal on Mediacon was screwed up last night....not sure for how long, since I was only flipping thru channels and the picture was frozen.

Mel


It worked for me last night. BUT, tonite I can't get 27.1 or 27.2. :mad:

This is for Directv subscribers who are also Chicago baseball fans...I discovered this just recently. When you hear that Comcast or WGN will be broadcasting the game in HD, do yourself a favor and check the program guide on channels 94, 730, & 731. They sometimes will show the game on these channels in HD and you don't have to subscribe to the MLB package to receive them. (You probably have to subscribe to the HD package however). Non-Chicago games however, are scrambled. Even though it isn't all the time, it will at least give us a few games in HD until they activate our area during the upcoming HD expansion. Does anyone know if the Directv 10 satellite that was recently launched will take care of our area, or will we be waiting until January's launch of Directv 11?


THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I am watching Cubs/Phillies in HD right now. BTW, I don't subscribe to any HD package. :D

I have a friend with mediacom in sherman. She just got a QAM capable HDTV but all i can seem to get out of it is the MusicChoice channels. Can someone list what the QAM Mediacom HD Channel Numbers are?

Dr.

Living south of Springfield and using Insight with a Magnavox HDTV with QAM tuner, I have been disappointed with 20.1 WICS. It appears to be dropping the HD signal and the voices are not syncronized with the actors.

Question-Is it my set, Insight, or the station? What is the cure?

Thanks

Living south of Springfield and using Insight with a Magnavox HDTV with QAM tuner, I have been disappointed with 20.1 WICS. It appears to be dropping the HD signal and the voices are not syncronized with the actors.

Question-Is it my set, Insight, or the station? What is the cure?

Thanks


I am having a similar problem with OTA 20.1 WICS on my Dish 622-DVR.
I get a 99 signal strength, but no picture or sound. If I surf a few channels then go back to 20.1 it comes in with a great picture,, kinda of a pain.

I have tried rescanning my locals with same results.. Seem that it just started doing this in the last 2 weeks?

I know when 20.1 was off air, I would get a music channel..

Any ideas?

I'm having problems with 20.1 OTA on my DirecTV H20 receiver. It won't pick up any audio or video. If I scan for channels, I can see the channel at some other mapping (42.3, I think?). My HD Tivo seems to be picking it up OK, though.

My guess is their PSIP data is really screwed up right now (along with whatever other problems they're having).

Hey all...

I'm actually going to get with on the OTA train tomorrow so I can be well prepared for the Bears games. :) I am planning on trying the Model: 15-2187 from Radio shack to my fancy vizio 1080p 47". My question is regarding antennaweb. I live about 30 miles north of Champaign and when it put my zip code in it seems to show WCCU way out in the country even though it shows in urbana....Is this accurate? For example it shows WCIA at 33.2miles/201 degrees...but it shows WCCU at 24.5miless/136 degrees. which estimating the triangle puts it way outside of urbana. Anyone know the actual location of WCCU's transmitter?

It's odd too that I pick of WAND in decatur very well but cannot get wcia...this is using my cheap radio shack indoor vhf/uhf piece. I'm guessing I should be ok...anyone have any info on any of the question/points i asked/made?

Thanks!

Hey all...

I'm actually going to get with on the OTA train tomorrow so I can be well prepared for the Bears games. :) I am planning on trying the Model: 15-2187 from Radio shack to my fancy vizio 1080p 47". My question is regarding antennaweb. I live about 30 miles north of Champaign and when it put my zip code in it seems to show WCCU way out in the country even though it shows in urbana....Is this accurate? For example it shows WCIA at 33.2miles/201 degrees...but it shows WCCU at 24.5miless/136 degrees. which estimating the triangle puts it way outside of urbana. Anyone know the actual location of WCCU's transmitter?

It's odd too that I pick of WAND in decatur very well but cannot get wcia...this is using my cheap radio shack indoor vhf/uhf piece. I'm guessing I should be ok...anyone have any info on any of the question/points i asked/made?

Thanks!

I have not verified the accuracy of this map, but I believe it came from earlier in this thread. I am surprised you get WAND but not WCIA at your location.

http://image.bayimg.com/eafpiaabe.jpg

20.1 HD OTA seems screwed up for sure. My Windows Media Center won't record any of the HD broadcasts at all. I just get an unsupported format error message. I can't even tune it in with WMC, yet my HDTV has no problems at all receiving it. I guess I'll have to see if I can manually tune it to receive with WMC. I have a DVico HDTV USB2 tuner hooked up to a laptop that can also receive it. I'm guessing that WMC uses the same info for autosetup as the D* and E* receivers.

The Hauppauge software finds and displays 20.1 as does the DVico software/hardware and my HDTV. WMC still says no signal although it shows all bars green w/r to signal strength. I'm baffled.

Hello - New here - I stumbled on here while googling for WICS information. I got a new HP Media Center PC with the TV tuner - I can get WAND 17, WBUI 23, WRSP 55, WCIA 3 but I can't get channel WICS - 20 even though the Media Center says that the signal is very strong.
I first used my plain old rabbit ears - then bought an amplified antennae and it improved all of the channels except channel 20 - just nothing there!
I am relieved to hear that it isn't just my own problem. Hope something gets figured out soon.
I am north-east of Decatur - between Decatur and Champaign: If my hubby installs a new antennae on our roof - will it draw in even more channels??? Thanks for any information.
Val :)

Called WICS and they said they'd look into it. I am now receiving 20-1 with the WMC so something must have changed. I could even get a strong signal on 42 but no video or audio just like on 20.1. Whatever they did, I'm getting AV now. Whether I can record or not is another story. We'll see.

Photogirl, are you now receiving 20-1? WICS 20 transmits around 950MW I think so you shouldn't have trouble getting it. I think the problem may have been at their end since it seems to come in OK now. A roof-mounted antenna will provide a better signal. With a roof-mounted antenna at 30 feet or so, you should be able to get all the regular locals plus Bloomington/Peoria Fox 43, Peoria 25, 31, 47 and Danville 15. I'm slightly northwest of Decatur and have my antenna up 30 feet pointed at Peoria and I get 3, 12, 17, 20, 23, 25, 31, 43, 47, and 55 all at decent strength. I lose Peoria 25 at time due to atmospherics as I'm a little outside of their broadcasting radius. The big advantage of a roof-mounted antenna is that the HD signal doesn't seem affected so much by the weather.

Called WICS and they said they'd look into it. I am now receiving 20-1 with the WMC so something must have changed. I could even get a strong signal on 42 but no video or audio just like on 20.1. Whatever they did, I'm getting AV now. Whether I can record or not is another story. We'll see.

Photogirl, are you now receiving 20-1? WICS 20 transmits around 950MW I think so you shouldn't have trouble getting it. I think the problem may have been at their end since it seems to come in OK now. A roof-mounted antenna will provide a better signal. With a roof-mounted antenna at 30 feet or so, you should be able to get all the regular locals plus Bloomington/Peoria Fox 43, Peoria 25, 31, 47 and Danville 15. I'm slightly northwest of Decatur and have my antenna up 30 feet pointed at Peoria and I get 3, 12, 17, 20, 23, 25, 31, 43, 47, and 55 all at decent strength. I lose Peoria 25 at time due to atmospherics as I'm a little outside of their broadcasting radius. The big advantage of a roof-mounted antenna is that the HD signal doesn't seem affected so much by the weather.

You should be able to get 20.1 now with no problem. We found an error this afternoon in the PSIP data that would not allow some receivers to tune the program. Some receivers may need to be rescanned.
Jim,Regional Engineering Manager

Thanks!

Thanks Jim, :D
I will re-scan for 20.1 when I get home.

That's fast service, I remember when I first emailed WICS to see when they were going to "start" transmitting in HD many moons ago, it took over a month to get a response. :eek:

I'm doing the happy dance - WICS 20 works great now (-: Thanks to whomever brought it to their attention - I called a couple of times and kept getting transfered to the Engineer and then voicemail.

I will definitely be looking into antennas - we already have a very high pole on the top of our house to allow us to get wireless broadband out here in the sticks - so an antenna wouldn't be hard to put right on it.

Anyone have suggestions on models, etc? Thanks again!

I have a friend with mediacom in sherman. She just got a QAM capable HDTV but all i can seem to get out of it is the MusicChoice channels. Can someone list what the QAM Mediacom HD Channel Numbers are?

Dr.
OK, here are the QAM channels I am getting from Mediacon, but, keep in mind that I am in Mahomet (West of Champaign), so I am not sure if they will translate well to Sherman. Also, I haven't done a scan for several months, but this is what I have at this time. If you find anything else, please let me know....
19.1 FOX WCCU
47.2 CBS WCIA
75.2 FOX 43 (Bloomington)
76.2 PBS WILL
76.4 ABC WICD
102.2 CBS WCIA
102.4 FOX WCCU
103.2 ABC WICD
103.3 NBC WAND
108.256 WGN (Have never seen HD on this station, though)
Also, I can pick up PPV and On Demand on channels 112.2-112.11, 113.2-113.11, 114.2-114.12 and 115.2-115.12 and the music channels are on 116, 117 and 118 digitals, but I don't pay too much attention to those. Hope this helps.

Mel

Photogirl, I'm using a Radio Shack U-75. It's a higher gain UHF antenna. I really could get by with a lower gain antenna where I live, but at the time WCIA was not online with their HD signal and I needed to be able to get distant Peoria WMBD to get the CBS HD feed.

I am using Insight and it looks like WCIA-HD (cbs) is down tonight. Does anyone know what is going on? TIA.

Ummm, I get the "movie channels" and all I am set up for is basic cable. Interestingly, I can not get the "movie channels" on my tv in the bedroom. That tv is an Insignia brand and when I punch in the channel number a message comes up saying "scrambled signal." I do not want to say what brand tv I have in my family room in case someone is monitoring this and somehow is able to put in a code so I no longer receive the channels. Here are the QAM channels I get here in Champaign, all come in loud and clear:

73.3 FOX HD
73.4 WAND Weather
73.5 NBC HD
74.3 ABC HD
74.49 WILL HD
74.5 CREATE WILL DT
77.2 WEIU
77.4 FOX
82.3 In demand pay per view movies (yep, channel comes in clear)
82.4 In demand pay per view movies (yep, channel comes in clear also. Watching Talladega Nights presently)
90.3 CW HD
90.4 CBS HD
111.5 Toon Disney
111.6 MTV 2

and of course, the damn music channels. Way too many to list.

Any recent additions/updates to these? And I know this question has been asked, but does anyone have an definitive information on any channels that will be moving to QAM come Comcast in November?

Does anybody know anyone who does antenna installs in the Rantoul area. I just do not trust myself to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Can someone find me posts or PM details regarding the TVGuide On-Screen problem? Thanks in advance.

Does anybody know anyone who does installs in the Rantoul area. I just do not trust myself to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I would imagine Good Vibes does. There used to be one in Rantoul. I assume there still is. This used to be their phone: (217) 892-5622.

Big DX event

This morning coming back from my walk in the (Meadowbrook) park, at 7 AM, WILL-FM
101.1 was unlistenable ... this at about 1.5 miles from the transmitter, due to interference.
True, they are only 300 watts, but 1.5 miles is still 1.5 miles!

So at home I looked on my spectrum analyzer and saw the most amazing thing I
every saw there: There was a at least a trace of a signal at every channel 14-60,
either analog or digital or on most places both (Except of course Ch. 37 which does not exist). There was nothing above 60 because my antennas don't work there. About 85 %
of the channels had a digital signal visible, mostly underneath an analog one.

I tried looking on my digital TV at all the ones that looked in the clear but most
did not work. Many did, however, from Indy, St. Louis, Carbondale, and
"unknown". Our local Ch. 26 (Ch 27 analog) did not work because of an obvious
analog DX station on top of the local digital! I was unable to identify it though
I could see it (barely) on analog TV.

There was also either a digital or analog signal an all high VHF channels.

Amazing!

Doug McDonald

Big DX event

This morning coming back from my walk in the (Meadowbrook) park, at 7 AM, WILL-FM
101.1 was unlistenable ... this at about 1.5 miles from the transmitter, due to interference.
True, they are only 300 watts, but 1.5 miles is still 1.5 miles!

So at home I looked on my spectrum analyzer and saw the most amazing thing I
every saw there: There was a at least a trace of a signal at every channel 14-60,
either analog or digital or on most places both (Except of course Ch. 37 which does not exist). There was nothing above 60 because my antennas don't work there. About 85 %
of the channels had a digital signal visible, mostly underneath an analog one.

I tried looking on my digital TV at all the ones that looked in the clear but most
did not work. Many did, however, from Indy, St. Louis, Carbondale, and
"unknown". Our local Ch. 26 (Ch 27 analog) did not work because of an obvious
analog DX station on top of the local digital! I was unable to identify it though
I could see it (barely) on analog TV.

There was also either a digital or analog signal an all high VHF channels.

Amazing!

Doug McDonald

Last night, I got a flash of WBBM-DT on RF 3.

Getting all kinds of analog signals from all over IL and IN. My poor 4th gen DTV recivers can't deal with the hash, so very few DTV contacts were logged.

Need that 6th gen reciever, with sex droid...

I got an ATSC tuner card installed in my computer and am wondering what antenna I should get. I am in an apartment in Urbana on the fourth floor with windows facing East. The crappy antenna I have doesn't pick anything up.

Go to AntennaWeb.org and plug in your exact address. Possibly WCCU (27.1/26) and WICD (15.1/41) with an indoor by the window facing E/NE.

Apologies if it has been mentioned in this thread but my son just moved to UofI and has an Insight HD box in his room. What are the channel numbers for the local digital stations on the box? (The TV doesn't have a QAM tuner). I do understand that all this will change soon when Comcast takes over.

Hi all,

Does anyone know call letters / station ID for WEIU's subchannel 51.2?
I emailed them and have not heard back.

Basically, I can receive 51.1 and 51.2 sporadically, and I want to know if it's worth fighting to tune it in. I know WEIU itself, but I have no idea what they are broadcasting on 51.2. I'd like to be able to look up listings online at TitanTV and so forth if possible. FWIW whenever it does come in, they seem to be showing international news.

Thanks,
Mike

I am btw Decatur and Champaign - does anyone have any idea why no channel listings are available for the 3 HD channels there??? They tune in just fine - but the last couple of times I updated the guide it shows none. I have a HP Media Center to view the channels.Thanks, Val

Mike, Channel 51.2 is actually pretty cool it calls itself WorldView Here is the link:
http://www.mhzworldview.org/

Champaign IL Insight Cable Channel Numbers per their web site:

http://http://www.insight-com.com/PrintLineup20.aspx?z=61820&ssid=11.03


Edit: link above doesn't work probably because it's based on a search or something. The link below seems to work.

http://www.insight-com.com/PrintLineup20.aspx?z=61820&ssid=11.03

@ Photogirl

My guide seems up to date. I'm using WMC with Vista Premium. Mine updates automatically. I've never tried the manual update. You may need to do the setup again if something is corrupted in the WMC software. It doesn't take long to redo the setup (a few minutes tops).

Apologies if it has been mentioned in this thread but my son just moved to UofI and has an Insight HD box in his room. What are the channel numbers for the local digital stations on the box? (The TV doesn't have a QAM tuner). I do understand that all this will change soon when Comcast takes over.

Here is a brief summary - Channel 906 is WAND, ABC; Channel 908 is WICD, NBC, Channel 910 is WCCU, Fox, 912 is WCIA, CBS, 914 is WBUI, CW, and Channel 916 is WILL, PBS. I hope this helps.

Thank you Marty and Laddy, I'll give those a try.

If this has already been asked, my apologies. Is there somewhere where one could find a summary of what will be changed with C-U cable once Comcast takes over for Insight? I'd like to know what to expect. Thanks.

Mike, Channel 51.2 is actually pretty cool it calls itself WorldView Here is the link:
http://www.mhzworldview.org/
Thanks much!

I plan on moving into my new house in Mahomet by the end of september. I've only used cable but I'm starting to consider going to satellite because of the HD options. I have a few questions for those with satellite in the champaign/mahomet area.

1. Do you get NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS in HD with directv/dish?
2. Is Comcast or WGN available in HD with directv/dish?

thanks.

No local HD channels available from either satellite company yet. They say soon (within a year I think).

No WGN HD unless it's been added lately.

Some can get the Chicago spotbeam and get network HD in that manner.

I have satellite but won't go HD for the networks even when available since I get all the locals with an antenna and don't have to worry about rain fade. I'll consider it whenever all the cablets go HD. So far about the only one I watch that's in HD is TNT. Once FX and ABC Family go to HD, I'll likely go HD with the satellite. They really haven't been offering current subscribers much of a deal for switching.

Here's the satellite HD offerings:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/programming/index.shtml
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/channelChart2.jsp?assetId=1100084

Just a note for any D* HR-20 users, 23-2 (SD subchannel for Decatur CW network) should appear in the guide soon. I'm sure most of us would watch or record the HD feed. However, if disk space is tight, and you need to record the CW channel, this might let you squeeze in another show (or you could use the crappy DirecTV local version of the channel -- same difference, just lesser quality).

The PBS guide data for the Jacksonville station (14-1, 14-2, 14-3) is still messed up. 14-1 and 14-2 are switched. I'm going to contact them later this week. Hopefully, that will be straightened out soon.

One request from anyone who subscribes to D*, has the new 5 LNB dish, and lives near Springfield -- would you PM me your signal strength #s from the 99 and 103 satellites? I just got the dish installed last week, and would like confirmation that it is aligned correctly. Thanks in advance! :cool:

No local HD channels available from either satellite company yet. They say soon (within a year I think).


Well that's disappointing. "Within a year" from a company usually means more than a year from my experience.


No WGN HD unless it's been added lately.


I thought I read someone mention on this thread that they were able to get WGN HD and ComcastHD on some unspecified channel. Maybe I read that wrong. If I can't get those than that sucks as well.


Some can get the Chicago spotbeam and get network HD in that manner.


Is it possible to get Chicago locals from the champaign area legally?


I have satellite but won't go HD for the networks even when available since I get all the locals with an antenna and don't have to worry about rain fade. I'll consider it whenever all the cablets go HD. So far about the only one I watch that's in HD is TNT. Once FX and ABC Family go to HD, I'll likely go HD with the satellite. They really haven't been offering current subscribers much of a deal for switching.

Here's the satellite HD offerings:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/programming/index.shtml
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/channelChart2.jsp?assetId=1100084


From the looks of it DISH currently has the best HD offerring although I hear directv's 'suppose' to add HD channels bigtime next month. With the lack of local HD's I wonder if it's really worth it to switch right now. Right now I'm on mediacom's cable service. I don't subscribe to any HD package but I get all the local channels in HD through my qam tuner.

Laddy, which satellite service do you have and how does the HD channel(s) (TNT if that's the only one you watch) look compared to OTA HD.

thanks!

I have D*sh. I don't have the HD package. I've seen D*sh HD on my friend's setup and at the dealers'. To my eyes, the OTA-HD seems a bit sharper and more saturated but that could just be my imagination. It's acceptable to me is the bottom line. It's certainly better than the dreck I get from Comcast Cable at a Florida winter home. I think the sat providers have to compress their signal quite a bit. I think the locals will be compressed to mpeg4. I'd go to dealers for both sat providers and look at the HD picture before you make a decision. My biggest gripe with satellite is losing the signal during rainstorms. Lost it tonight for a little while without any heavy rain locally; the cloud cover was just really dense I guess.

I doubt there is any "legal" way to get the Chicago spotbeam in Champaign.

Is WCCU not broadcasting HD again? I rescanned my signal as per the previous note here, yet the Bears-49ers game is not in HD, despite all the "This HD broadcast brought to you by..." promos on the screen.

What gives?

Another thing to throw in the equation is that Dish's HD DVR, the 622, is probably the best HD DVR out there. Unlike cable's offerings, it has 30 second quick skip for getting through commercials quickly. They've recently modified the operating system to allow USB hard drives to be added for unlimited archiving of HD content (one-time $40 fee, I think)


I plan on moving into my new house in Mahomet by the end of september. I've only used cable but I'm starting to consider going to satellite because of the HD options. I have a few questions for those with satellite in the champaign/mahomet area.

1. Do you get NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS in HD with directv/dish?
2. Is Comcast or WGN available in HD with directv/dish?

thanks.

[I thought I read someone mention on this thread that they were able to get WGN HD and ComcastHD on some unspecified channel. Maybe I read that wrong. If I can't get those than that sucks as well.}

I had mentioned in an earlier thread that occasionally you can catch hd broadcasts of Chicago sports (when they announce that they will be shown in hd) on Directv channels 94 or 95. For example,the past two Cub/Brewer games were shown there recently, but not tonight's game. On another note, I had the chance to speak with the station manager from WICS and he felt that we should be seeing the locals in hd on Directv around January. He also mentioned that within two years WICS will have all of their hd equipment in place, so we would be seeing local programming, commercials, etc in hd.
And don't forget...the Big Ten Network starts tonight at 8pm on Directv channel 220.

I've been reading bits and pieces of this thread. Live on the east side of Urbana and am unable to get any OTA HD signals for the locals. The waivers have all come back denied. I am considering going through with a "move" to the Chicago market. Should I be able to receive the Chicago spot beams? Also how attentive are the DTV people? If I change the installation address to an empty lot off the real estate listings on the phone and then jump online to send the bill here, should that work? And worse case, is there anything DTV can do besides stating the standard "nice try" line if they catch on before it's through the system?

Edit: Just to add on 101 transponder 18 is in the mid 90s, 28 is at 74. All other sat transponders 18 and 28 are in the 90s. Should I be concerned with that 74 on 101?

I've been reading bits and pieces of this thread. Live on the east side of Urbana and am unable to get any OTA HD signals for the locals. The waivers have all come back denied. I am considering going through with a "move" to the Chicago market. Should I be able to receive the Chicago spot beams? Also how attentive are the DTV people? If I change the installation address to an empty lot off the real estate listings on the phone and then jump online to send the bill here, should that work? And worse case, is there anything DTV can do besides stating the standard "nice try" line if they catch on before it's through the system?

You can probably just tell them that you're going to use the equipment for TV reception on an RV, and that you want Chicago HD channels so that you can get "local" networks when you're on the road. The DTV companies routinely allow that for retired folks who are big into RVs.

I've been reading bits and pieces of this thread. Live on the east side of Urbana and am unable to get any OTA HD signals for the locals.
I near the intersection of Main and Brady in Urbana. I have an external omnidirectional amplified antenna and a LOT of trees around, me, and I get all the locals just fine.

The waivers have all come back denied. I am considering going through with a "move" to the Chicago market. Should I be able to receive the Chicago spot beams?

I "moved" to Chicago earlier, and I get them fine from DishNetwork


You can probably just tell them that you're going to use the equipment for TV reception on an RV, and that you want Chicago HD channels so that you can get "local" networks when you're on the road. The DTV companies routinely allow that for retired folks who are big into RVs.
I know Echostar/Dishnetwork needs a copy of your RV title before they grant that.

I guess you could sign up for autobilling/payment but they still send stuff through the mail from time to time so that may trigger a response. I think people who circumvent usually have a friend/relative's address in the area to use. I imagine it is illegal and there is a law that comes into play. It's likely a federal law via FCC regulations, but I don't know for sure or what the penalties/fines are. I wouldn't bother myself. Can't you get cable? Are you trying to get a signal with an indoor antenna? You'll have to have an outdoor mounted 30-40 feet or more if you're behind a ridge or in a depression. Even indoor, can't you receive 3, 12, 15, and 27? The HD locals will likely be available from the at least one of the sat providers after the first of the year.

Even indoor, can't you receive 3, 12, 15, and 27? The HD locals will likely be available from the at least one of the sat providers after the first of the year.


We are able to get 15-1 once in awhile but it is unreliable...I'd put it this way, if I wanted to record something I wouldn't record the OTA signal. 3, 12, and 27 don't come in with the indoor antenna. The funny thing is that I was able to receive signals 20+ miles away with the same antenna down in Orlando...here I can't even pick up a signal 10 miles down the road.

I didn't want to "move" to Chicago but all (including WAND which is 30+ miles away) have denied the waiver and have not responded to emails. If they don't have the common courtesy to at least return an email, I have zero respect for watching anything they transmit.

The problem is there's no reason not to be able to receive the signals. Not wanting to put up an outside antenna is not a valid reason for a waiver. Waivers are for when the signals just don't reach your location at all. Some received waivers for CBS HD before WCIA went online but that's about it since the others have had HD OTA signals for quite a while.

It doesn't cost a huge amount to erect a 30 foot or higher telescoping mast with antenna and rotor. If you do it yourself, it should cost $150 or less depending on the rotor and UHF antenna you purchase (you should be able to get 12 with a UHF even though it's technically in the VHF spectrum).

Mast $50 - $75
Rotor and cable $50
Antenna and coax $25 -$35

You might check with Good Vibes to see what they charge if you're interested. An indoor antenna is just not going to cut it if you're blocked by trees or terrain or structures. Trying to pick up a station 30 miles away over a ridge is asking a lot from an indoor antenna. If you have a 2-story house, placing a mast on the chimney might be sufficient (and cheap).

Sometimes using an exterior antenna indoors will work as well although Decatur will still be difficult given the distance. The problem is with any antenna used indoors and distant transmitters, you're not getting a line of sight signal but relying on the signal bouncing off the ground, buildings, etc.

If you don't have cable access and don't want to erect an outside antenna, your best bet is to just wait for the sat providers to add the HD locals this coming year.

For the last year, I've been using a Winegard 4400 with low-to-medium success. It's a fairly small, 4-bay, directional aluminum UHF antenna on a 4.5' mast on the roof of a split-level home in SW Champaign, recommended by the installer. When first installed, it was clear that the various positions of local transmitters (and perhaps also the extensive trees in the neighborhood) was going to lead to frequent dropouts of signal, and it's been that way for the entire time. The "best" aiming of the antenna yields signal strength of low 70's for Fox (27.1) and NBC (17.1), strong signal (usually 100) for ABC (15.1) and PBS (12.1), and to my surprise, high 60's to low 70's for CBS (3.1) when it came online. Not sure about other channels because these are the only ones I watch with any regularity. The bottom line is, except for ABC and PBS, I can't watch a full program without the signal dropping out, often so frequently that I switch over to the SD feed through my Dish out of frustration.

My original installer said I might want to try a taller mast, so I did this yesterday. I now have the 4400 at the end of a 10' pole, providing an additional 5.5' of elevation. I also played around more with the direction of the antenna, and have concluded that I essentially have to choose between CBS and Fox. This is unacceptable during the NFL season, but for mounting reasons I can't install a rotor. So I'm looking for other options to get more of an omnidirectional (or at least bidirectional) response from my setup. As I write this, I've got the 4400 pointed to accommodate the most channels possible with the least dropout, and I've got the following signal strengths: CBS=high 90's, PBS=high 90's, NBC=high 80's/low 90's, ABC=low 80's, CW=high 70's/low 80's. Only CW drops out with any regularity, which was annoying during last night's Cardinals game. But Fox won't even lock onto a signal, so this cannot be a final solution.

In browsing the AVS Forums and various antenna spec pages, it seems like the following are possible options:
1) mount a second 4400 pointed in the opposite direction and combine the signals.
2) try a larger antenna like the Channel Master 4228 or Winegard 8800. Somewhere within this thread is a suggestion to remove something from the back of one of these models, lowering its gain but essentially making it bidirectional.
3) try an omnidirectional antenna like the Winegard MS-2000, being careful to adjust for optimal performance.

Given my location, mounting, and current reception levels, what is most likely to work for me? I appreciate your input, and feel free to suggest additional options that aren't on my "list."

Thanks,
-Brad

anyone having problems with Fox 27.1 and 55.1? noticed no reception today, hoping will be back before football season starts! thanks for any help.

Hello Brad,
For the last year, I've been using a Winegard 4400 with low-to-medium success. It's a fairly small, 4-bay, directional aluminum UHF antenna on a 4.5' mast on the roof of a split-level home in SW Champaign, recommended by the installer. When first installed, it was clear that the various positions of local transmitters (and perhaps also the extensive trees in the neighborhood) was going to lead to frequent dropouts of signal, and it's been that way for the entire time. The "best" aiming of the antenna yields signal strength of low 70's for Fox (27.1) and NBC (17.1), strong signal (usually 100) for ABC (15.1) and PBS (12.1), and to my surprise, high 60's to low 70's for CBS (3.1) when it came online. Not sure about other channels because these are the only ones I watch with any regularity. The bottom line is, except for ABC and PBS, I can't watch a full program without the signal dropping out, often so frequently that I switch over to the SD feed through my Dish out of frustration.

My original installer said I might want to try a taller mast, so I did this yesterday. I now have the 4400 at the end of a 10' pole, providing an additional 5.5' of elevation. I also played around more with the direction of the antenna, and have concluded that I essentially have to choose between CBS and Fox. This is unacceptable during the NFL season, but for mounting reasons I can't install a rotor. So I'm looking for other options to get more of an omnidirectional (or at least bidirectional) response from my setup. As I write this, I've got the 4400 pointed to accommodate the most channels possible with the least dropout, and I've got the following signal strengths: CBS=high 90's, PBS=high 90's, NBC=high 80's/low 90's, ABC=low 80's, CW=high 70's/low 80's. Only CW drops out with any regularity, which was annoying during last night's Cardinals game. But Fox won't even lock onto a signal, so this cannot be a final solution.

In browsing the AVS Forums and various antenna spec pages, it seems like the following are possible options:
1) mount a second 4400 pointed in the opposite direction and combine the signals.

Normally a bad idea. Combining antennas that pick up the same channels on a certain band (such as UHF) usually is a disaster due to phasing and other problems.

2) try a larger antenna like the Channel Master 4228 or Winegard 8800. Somewhere within this thread is a suggestion to remove something from the back of one of these models, lowering its gain but essentially making it bidirectional.
Since you have trees in the area, with signal reflecting off of them, this would be a good thing. Particularly the CM 4228, since it also picks
up VHF-HI channels well, and even some VHF-LO (channels 2-6) if the station is close by.

3) try an omnidirectional antenna like the Winegard MS-2000, being careful to adjust for optimal performance.

In general, this is a bad idea as well. Your signals flickering in and out is due to multipath from the trees, as far as I can tell. This would probably make it worse, or at least as bad as it was before.

Given my location, mounting, and current reception levels, what is most likely to work for me? I appreciate your input, and feel free to suggest additional options that aren't on my "list."


My suggestion is odd, but it is this: Put the CM 4228 on there and point it towards Springfield. A friend of mine lives 4 miles north of Champaign out in the country. He has his on a 30' tower with a rotor, but points it at Springfield, and gets everything digital from there (except the low power CBS/CW relay there), including FOX, *and* picks up WCCU off the back, as well as everything else locally off the sides. Oh, and he also locks Peoria's FOX constantly as well. Then, a small preamplifier to get WRSP in Springfield, if it doesn't lock it without a preamp. He has a ChannelMaster 7777 preamp on his, but then again, that's overkill for you; he likes to DX and periodically gets stations from the Columbia, MO market as well as the surrounding ones from Indiana and Kentucky. Anyhow, if you wouldn't mind WRSP, that is one idea. And with a preamp such as this one, which also cuts out FM interference:

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/ap2870.htm

...there's a good chance you could pick up WCCU off the back.

My suggestion is odd, but it is this: Put the CM 4228 on there and point it towards Springfield. A friend of mine lives 4 miles north of Champaign out in the country. He has his on a 30' tower with a rotor, but points it at Springfield, and gets everything digital from there (except the low power CBS/CW relay there), including FOX, *and* picks up WCCU off the back, as well as everything else locally off the sides. Oh, and he also locks Peoria's FOX constantly as well. Then, a small preamplifier to get WRSP in Springfield, if it doesn't lock it without a preamp. He has a ChannelMaster 7777 preamp on his, but then again, that's overkill for you; he likes to DX and periodically gets stations from the Columbia, MO market as well as the surrounding ones from Indiana and Kentucky. Anyhow, if you wouldn't mind WRSP, that is one idea. And with a preamp which also cuts out FM interference, there's a good chance you could pick up WCCU off the back.

Hi Gilbert,
Thanks so much for the advice. I don't care if my Fox affiliate is Springfield or Urbana, so I'll definitely give the CM 4228 aimed at Springfield a try, first without the preamp and then with it if necessary. Regarding the suggestion in a previous message of removing the screen, are you familiar with this procedure? If so, is it part of your overall recommendation? I also found something earlier at hdtvprimer.com in the antennas section about the screen on this antenna, but I don't understand the technology well enough to really know what they're talking about.

Again, thanks. I'll report back when I give the new antenna a shot.
-Brad

Hi Gilbert,
Thanks so much for the advice. I don't care if my Fox affiliate is Springfield or Urbana, so I'll definitely give the CM 4228 aimed at Springfield a try, first without the preamp and then with it if necessary.

Sounds good! Having too much signal is a far better and easier problem to deal with than too little.

Regarding the suggestion in a previous message of removing the screen, are you familiar with this procedure? If so, is it part of your overall recommendation? I also found something earlier at hdtvprimer.com in the antennas section about the screen on this antenna, but I don't understand the technology well enough to really know what they're talking about.

Again, thanks. I'll report back when I give the new antenna a shot.
-Brad
Hi Brad,

You are welcome.

I have seen a few people do cut the screen off, with mixed results. First off: if you remove the screen, you will remove more than 50% of the antenna's effectiveness. Now if you lived in an area where everything in one direction was 20 miles away and a station behind you was 5 miles away, I'd say yes..and it has been successfully done in a similar scenario over on the antenna portion of the hardware forum.

BUT...you've got a problem where some stations are 60 miles away. My friend who has the CM 4228 antenna with the ChannelMaster 7777 preamp gets all of the digitals *and analogs* in decently from 4 miles north of Champaign (it's on a rotor as well). The advantages of this setup are huge:

1. When he points it at a west-northwest direction, he gets WCCU and everything from Champaign and Decatur. West-southwest, and he gets 'em all from Springfield as well (minus CBS-HD), but WCCU breaks up. (He can also get WMBD-DT and a few other Peoria stations after sundown pretty much every day).

2. He can point the antenna north and lock the Peoria/Bloomington Fox (with a 4228 not blocked by a hill, this is easy to do in Champaign). If there is a problem with the Champaign NBC/FOX affiliates, he can tune to the ones in Springfield.

3. During bad weather, he can still lock everything because of the antenna's high gain.

4. Due to ice accumulation on the antenna, or due to power outages from a bad storm...if any station has to go to low power (and during an ice storm, the stations transmitters automagically drop power severely so that they don't blow up their transmitters), you'll still likely lock them; even if WCIA has to go to 1.8 kw on their old antenna due to ice, maintenance or whatnot. My friend had a signal lock of 80%-90% when WCIA was at low power, 10 miles from the transmitter. That's not shabby.
My 4228 frequently locked a 2.3 kilowatter 35 miles out pointed 120 degrees off, and always locked it easily when pointed at it. This using a third generation tuner (5th and 6th gen, which are much better, are common now).

Gain is your biggest friend in market spread out wide like this one. Keep the screen on, and it is also good you are using RG-6. But like you said, first things first...try the 4228 and see what happens. He pegs 100% on WILL-DT and WAND-DT, with nearly 30:1 signal-to-noise ratios. Smokin! ;)

Edit: Oh and reason #5:

5. Technical problems. Note the posts above and below ours. Looks like WCCU/WRSP might be on the blink to some degree. If both are indeed down, then you can always get the one from west of Bloomington. Yeah, it's a trip to the roof (a rotor *should* work for you, unless you can't get the wires down to your TV).

yes. i have mediacom cable and its been gone for 2 days now. probably adjusting their digital tower or transmitter.

Though in theory having 2 antennae on one mast and combining their signals is a bad idea, I've had it work sucessfully. You may have to play with the distance between the antennae to get them to work. I had best success in combining a fairly directional yagi with a somewhat less directional antenna of the kind you have now. I think the yagi basically just got the signal I was aiming it at and didn't create any multipath interference.

Though in theory having 2 antennae on one mast and combining their signals is a bad idea, I've had it work sucessfully. You may have to play with the distance between the antennae to get them to work. I had best success in combining a fairly directional yagi with a somewhat less directional antenna of the kind you have now. I think the yagi basically just got the signal I was aiming it at and didn't create any multipath interference.

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the information. I'm keeping all my options open at this point, but I have to say I like the idea of one antenna better than the idea of two antennae. I've already placed an order for a CM 4228, but I'll hold on to my Winegard 4400, and if the Channel Master solution doesn't work, I'll send the CM back and try the two antennae approach.

Thanks again,
-Brad

I guess you could sign up for autobilling/payment but they still send stuff through the mail from time to time so that may trigger a response. I think people who circumvent usually have a friend/relative's address in the area to use. I imagine it is illegal and there is a law that comes into play. It's likely a federal law via FCC regulations, but I don't know for sure or what the penalties/fines are. I wouldn't bother myself. Can't you get cable? Are you trying to get a signal with an indoor antenna? You'll have to have an outdoor mounted 30-40 feet or more if you're behind a ridge or in a depression. Even indoor, can't you receive 3, 12, 15, and 27? The HD locals will likely be available from the at least one of the sat providers after the first of the year.

There is no federal law that prohibits giving your satellite provider a false address and no penalty or fine that is applicable. Doing this, however, IS a violation of your subscriber agreement (contract) with your service provider, and in theory, if they find out, they will cut your service off, because knowingly providing these signals to you is a violation of THEIR agreements with the networks. Also in theory, you could be liable for damages for breach of contract, but the fact is that no damages exist in these cases (you've paid for the service, which means both DTV and the rights-holders received their compensation). In addition, if you do this, you'd better be prepared to maintain all your equipment yourself, because they can't exactly send a service tech out to your address, since you're not there!

Having said all that, it doesn't keep a lot of folks from doing it.

John C.

Anyone here use a qam tuner with mediacom? I'm just wondering if they just started encrypting their on-demand selection. For the past week I used to be able to tune into channels 112.1-113.10, 115.1-115.10 and some others and receive other people's on-demand selections. They're no longer coming in and I was wondering if they 'patched' this.

Anyone here use a qam tuner with mediacom? I'm just wondering if they just started encrypting their on-demand selection. For the past week I used to be able to tune into channels 112.1-113.10, 115.1-115.10 and some others and receive other people's on-demand selections. They're no longer coming in and I was wondering if they 'patched' this.

I use the qam tuner with mediacon and could get those channels last Wednesday, but I haven't tried since. I will check it out for you tonight and let you know my experience.

Mel

Anyone here use a qam tuner with mediacom? I'm just wondering if they just started encrypting their on-demand selection. For the past week I used to be able to tune into channels 112.1-113.10, 115.1-115.10 and some others and receive other people's on-demand selections. They're no longer coming in and I was wondering if they 'patched' this.

Well, I tried cycling through these channels last night without any luck, so Mediacon must have started encrypting these signals. Now, I can only find the local network feeds (minus Fox) and a few music channels.

Mel

Hmm, what's the story with FOX? It was there, then right around the time they encrypted the on demand feeds it went dark, signal stil there, but no video.


erie patsellis

Hmm, what's the story with FOX? It was there, then right around the time they encrypted the on demand feeds it went dark, signal stil there, but no video.


erie patsellis

Yeah, on 102.1 in mahomet it went dark although I still get the other fox channel on 75.1 (peoria)

Yeah, on 102.1 in mahomet it went dark although I still get the other fox channel on 75.1 (peoria)

Hmm, what's the story with FOX? It was there, then right around the time they encrypted the on demand feeds it went dark, signal stil there, but no video.


erie patsellis

i called fox springfield and left a message concerning this issue with the station manager. i have yet to hear anything yet. i tried calling mediacom, but it was taking forever for anybody to answer the phone. hopefully they get their acts straight before sunday's football game. the local fox has had a lot of issues with their hd feeds lately. i hear anything, i'll post it.

I have a qam tuner hooked up to cable in Champaign and it appears that they've been playing with the signal distribution. I'm no longer getting WCIA as a mapped channel. Anybody have any ideas? I think it used to show up at 48.1, but it's no longer there.

The music channels used to tune in as well and they are no longer there either. Anybody know what's going on?

Thanks!

I have a qam tuner hooked up to cable in Champaign and it appears that they've been playing with the signal distribution. I'm no longer getting WCIA as a mapped channel. Anybody have any ideas? I think it used to show up at 48.1, but it's no longer there.

The music channels used to tune in as well and they are no longer there either. Anybody know what's going on?

Thanks!

I have insight basic cable and WCIA was moved from 48.1 to 90.2 a few weeks back. You will probably need to rescan the channels.

After yet another rain fade event during the drizzling tonight, I finally threw up my hands and decided that just because DTV was beyond great (no rain fade except in the worst of the tropical downpours) in Orlando, I shouldn't accept their many shortcomings here. I'm curious how the Insight/Comcast HD-DVR compares to the HR20. Reading up on it I've got to say I'm concerned about it's lack of storage space. Is there another provider in town?

You are not getting WCCU-DT because they are off the air, no signal at all, its been like that for several days.

Has Ken been around lately? I'm disappointed to not watch the Bears in HD today, no signal from 27.1. Will this be resolved in the near future?

After yet another rain fade event during the drizzling tonight, I finally threw up my hands and decided that just because DTV was beyond great (no rain fade except in the worst of the tropical downpours) in Orlando, I shouldn't accept their many shortcomings here. I'm curious how the Insight/Comcast HD-DVR compares to the HR20. Reading up on it I've got to say I'm concerned about it's lack of storage space. Is there another provider in town?

msajeff -

my $0.02

First, if you like the BigTen, there is still no deal with the Big Ten Network for Insight/Comcast in CU.

Second, the new HD channels D* is scheduled to release should be enough to rethink going cable (that is, of course, assuming they deliver).

Finally, FWIW, my experience with the local cable company (albeit at least 6 years ago) was enough for me to vow off cable forever. I received the worst customer service in my life.

Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

First weekend of NFL, and no WCCU signal whatsoever. Reading back a few pages, it appears that WCCU has just given up shop entirely with respect to their digital signal.

What gives?

Heavy,

Did you happen to see the crawl. Maybe we'll have the Bears in HD after all???

Heavy,

Did you happen to see the crawl. Maybe we'll have the Bears in HD after all???

What crawl? I can't get an OTA digital signal from WCCU at all...

On the D* SD feed, there's been a crawl acknowledging the issue, and indicating they are working on the problem...

For an explanation of the problem with WCCU-DT visit http://www.dougquick.com (http://www.dougquick.com)and go to Digital Television.

For an explanation of the problem with WCCU-DT visit http://www.dougquick.com (http://www.dougquick.com)and go to Digital Television.

Thanks for the link. I recall that happening several weeks ago, but I simply assumed that a new tube had been shipped using a carrier faster than pony express.

Quoting the link:

Note: The digital signal of WCCU has been off the air since late August. According to WCCU C.E. J.D. Richardson, "We experienced a catastrophic failure in our 4-1/2+ year old Inductive Output Tube in the transmitter high power amplifier. A new IOT has been ordered and is being shipped to our transmitter for installation and tuning. Until then, we are off-air on the digital side in Champaign, IL. Insight Cable has our analog signal placed within their digital tier TFN. "

I think WCCU came back online this morning briefly on 102.1 (mediacom) It went away again though.

I just checked and it looks like WCCU-DT is back on the air. Picked it up OTA (low signal, though) and Mediacon is now broadcasting it via the cable box.

Mel

Still 0 signal here...

Watching 27.1 here.

Now pegging the meter at 100 signal strength...

I have insight basic cable and WCIA was moved from 48.1 to 90.2 a few weeks back. You will probably need to rescan the channels.

Thanks for your reply. I've done a rescan now and I'm still not picking up WCIA at 90.2. I have a Samsung H260F Tuner - anybody in the area hooked up to Insight having the same issue? I'm getting around it now by hooking up an A/B switch with an antenna, but it's a clunky fix. Kind of a pain to have to get up and switch inputs while switching between games.

Thanks for your reply. I've done a rescan now and I'm still not picking up WCIA at 90.2. I have a Samsung H260F Tuner - anybody in the area hooked up to Insight having the same issue? I'm getting around it now by hooking up an A/B switch with an antenna, but it's a clunky fix. Kind of a pain to have to get up and switch inputs while switching between games.

WCIA is 90.4 and THE CW is 90.3

WCIA is 90.4 and THE CW is 90.3

For some reason, my qam tuner is skipping WCIA. I've scanned and rescanned and it will not find it. Seems weird that it picks up the others, but not Channel 3.

For some reason, my qam tuner is skipping WCIA. I've scanned and rescanned and it will not find it. Seems weird that it picks up the others, but not Channel 3.

Punch those numbers manual with your remote and see if the station will come in then, as my sony xbr2 will not find them on a channel scan aswell.

Punch those numbers manual with your remote and see if the station will come in then, as my sony xbr2 will not find them on a channel scan aswell.

I've tried that, but my tuner won't manually accept the channel unless it has already "found" it previously. Kinda screwy, but that's how my box works. Seems like you should be able to manually input a number, but no such luck.

Just picked up an antenna today and am trying to figure all this out. I get WCIA-DT but its on 3.1 rather than 90.4? Am I pulling in a digital signal but not the HD signal?

I'm also curious about the signal strengths that have been described in previous posts. What sort of tool can be used to measure these strengths?

Thanks,
Mark

Just picked up an antenna today and am trying to figure all this out. I get WCIA-DT but its on 3.1 rather than 90.4? Am I pulling in a digital signal but not the HD signal?

I'm also curious about the signal strengths that have been described in previous posts. What sort of tool can be used to measure these strengths?

Thanks,
Mark

Mark - WCIA is broadcasting their OTA (Over-the-Air) digital signal on 3.1, so your antenna is doing its job. The digital signal is where you will receive the HD broadcasts whenever there is an HD show on...most prime time shows and Letterman after the news. The 90.4 they are talking about is the channel for the Qam tuner on Insight cable, so it has nothing to do with reception from your antenna. The signal strength is shown in the diagnostics screen of my television which is found in the user settings menus. Hope this helps.

Mel

A few pages back I posted a question about improving OTA reception from an antenna that I can't raise as high as most of the trees in the neighborhood. I received some excellent advice, and purchased a fine new Channel Master antenna and preamp.

Unfortunately, I left out a piece of information which I didn't know to be relevant, and I think it might make a big difference. My OTA signal is combined near the antenna with my Dish Network signal for a single cable run to the other side of the house.

Ok, so last weekend I installed the new antenna and preamp and had my wife check the signal strength while I was on the roof. To my surprise, it was lower than it had been with the smaller antenna aimed in the same direction. Didn't really concern me that much, since I had the preamp connected but not plugged in. So I go inside, plug in the preamp power source, and not only does it not improve the reception, but it killed the reception of my HD channels from Dish. It says in the instructions to plug in the preamp as close to the TV as possible, which is exactly what I did -- right between the wall and the sat receiver. Unplugging the preamp power source restored the HD channels on the satellite.

Back to the roof. Taking the preamp out of the equation altogether results in slightly better reception on all channels I was getting with the smaller antenna, but nothing new. Definitely not what I expected as a return on my investment, if you know what I mean. Signal strength that was in the low-to-mid 70's is now in the high 70's and so forth. The bigger problem is the same one as before though. I either get NO Fox reception at all--and yes, this is after it came back--and everything else very solid, or mediocre reception with frequent dropouts of everything I really want. I have temporarily chosen the first option, at the sacrifice of NFC games in HD.

Rather than just taking up bandwith griping, I do actually have a question. Is there anything I can do differently with the preamp to make a difference here? If not, I'll just return it and keep the antenna. I also have the old Winegard 4400, but not much usable mast. One thing I don't care to do is run another full length of cable for just the antenna, but if anyone has suggestions for what I might try using what I've got now, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
-Brad

If this has already been asked, my apologies. Is there somewhere where one could find a summary of what will be changed with C-U cable once Comcast takes over for Insight? I'd like to know what to expect. Thanks.

I did a little research on this a few months ago and one of the biggest differences I saw was that Comcast does not offer the HD Net or HD Net Movie channels. They offer another single channel that has concerts and movies, but not as good a selection as HD Net. The other difference is that, IIRC, Comcast offers NFL Network in HD. I will give Comcast a try, but if Directv or Dish starts offering the local channels in HD, I will probably go with one the satellites.

WCIA is really having issues this afternoon. I just got my OnAir USB HD tuner and was very excited to watch the Bears in HD today. First of all they didn't show the first 12 minutes of the game because the Bengals/Browns game was still going. (which wasn't even the first game in our coverage area) Once that was finally over they finally put the Bears game on. They've had several blackouts and now have switched to the SD feed. (showing a crawler that says NO HD DUE BACKUP FEED). Argh.

CBS was the one to blame for the switchover. Not sure why they couldnt change it over like they did the Jets game at 3:13. And then they muck up the HD feed. If this is the way CBS treats viewers they don't deserve to get the NFL on the next contract talks.

It would have been nice if the problems with WILL and the Gemstar/TV guide were fixed as quickly as the problems with the bears game. I had to reset my panny multiple times, and when the tv guide data was corrupt, the panny acted as if the dvd burner was bad. This nonsense went on for nearly a month! For the early part of July, I would get listings for only a day or so in advance as they wailed on the new encoder. What a jacked up mess! Once the mess was finally cleared, the panny is normal again.

If this has already been asked, my apologies. Is there somewhere where one could find a summary of what will be changed with C-U cable once Comcast takes over for Insight?

Prices will rise, expectations will lower, and service will stay about the same. :)

Maybe that's a cynical answer, but things rarely ever seem to go the other way. I'll miss HDnet if it goes. I really like some of its programming.

TBK

Here is what I could find for the Comcast HD channels in Dekalb, IL. I deleted out the Chicago channels. I assume we will get the same local channels as with Insight.

As you can see no HD Net or HD Net Movie channels. That really sucks. It looks like I start talking to GoodVibes about Direct or Dish.

173 ESPN HD
174 MOJO
179 HGTV HD
181 Food Network HD
185 Showtime HD
186 HBO HD
195 Cinemax HD
196 Starz HD
199 Versus/Golf HD
200 Comcast SportsNet HDTV
203 ESPN2 HD
204 TNT in HD
205 Discovery HD Theater
206 National Geographic HD
207 Universal HD
208 A&E HD
209 MHD

As you can see no HD Net or HD Net Movie channels. That really sucks. It looks like I start talking to GoodVibes about Direct or Dish.

If you're into Illini Sports and want HD, Dish Network is currently the way to go. DirecTV hasn't launched their Big 10 HD channel yet. Dish also has all the overflow games in HD as well, so it's not just limited to one single game every Saturday.

Big 10 in HD? Nice! (http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-hd-discussions/107473-big-10-hd-nice.html)

I've been a Dish subscriber for 10 years and am greatly satisfied with their product. Their DVRs work great and with the addition of the Big 10 Network I'm a happy camper!

EDIT: Here's a list of HD on Dish Network (http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/programming/index.shtml) - but it may not be totally current.

I didn't realize Dish was going to broadcast the Big Ten Network in HD. Right after Dish started broadcasing the Big Ten Network I spoke to a salesperson at Primier Audio/Video and they knew nothing about Big Ten Network being carried on HD. I will check into them as well. I don't think we will ever see Big Ten Network on Insight/Comcast in even SD.

Dish is doing right by the BTN. They have a full time BTN HD channel (though not always HD material) and 4 HD overflow channels when more than one event is going on at a time. It gets use on Saturday afternoons now and will get more use during basketball. It looks like this Saturday's Illinois game will be in HD on BTN.

I've been with Dish about 4 years now and am a happy customer. Dish's 622/722 HD DVR is the best available right now, much superior to Insight's HD DVR.

A few pages back I posted a question about improving OTA reception from an antenna that I can't raise as high as most of the trees in the neighborhood. I received some excellent advice, and purchased a fine new Channel Master antenna and preamp.

Unfortunately, I left out a piece of information which I didn't know to be relevant, and I think it might make a big difference.

Rather than just taking up bandwith griping, I do actually have a question. Is there anything I can do differently with the preamp to make a difference here? If not, I'll just return it and keep the antenna. I also have the old Winegard 4400, but not much usable mast. One thing I don't care to do is run another full length of cable for just the antenna, but if anyone has suggestions for what I might try using what I've got now, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
-Brad

Brad,

Ohhh, boy. that was a VERY relevant piece of info. You are messing up the D* signal by doing that...diplexing the OTA is fine, but when you run an amp on it, you over-strengthen the D* signal.

Your solutions are as follows:

1. Go back to the 4400 and take the 4228 and 7777 preamp back, less shipping, and time spent so far and packaging and re-shipping everything back. Note what happened with WCCU, and imagine yourself on a football weekend without it while WRSP happily hums along.

2. Do a second run of RG-6 cable. Not easy to be sure, but doable, and by following the same path, it won't detract from the beauty of the house (IE, wife approval factor: 100%).

One ice storm and you'll know why you'll be happy to have that 4228 up there (or name your reason for power going out at a transmitter site or a transmitter going down), even with the hard work of installing the new RG-6.

The reason why some signals are down is because it is so directional. CORERCTION: plus, you might be getting interference from your D*
feed; if you have an MPEG-4 box, you are not supposed to diplex it because it uses the over-the-air frequencies/channels as well (and if you don't, you'll be switching pretty soon anyway). My guess is that WCCU is at low power, so you may need to point the antenna at them to get them for now.

You'll need the preamp to get the Springfield stations reliably, so I wouldn't return it. Otherwise, you did everything else fine.
A new RG-6 cable will do the trick.

Hi there,

I live in Bloomington and I keep having problems with the reception of 3.1 (CBS). I get other channels from Champaign (PBS) and Decatur fine but CBS is always erratic. Do you know if they are at full power? Are they having issues?

The other day I ordered and received an OnAir GT USB HDTV and also got a Terk indoor HDTV antenna. I hooked them both up the other day at the office in Champaign and was surprised at how much I could pick up. I am on the 5th floor of a building in downtown Champaign that has west facing windows. With the Terk antenna, I can pick up all the Champaign stations pretty easily. (WCCU is a little tricky since their transmitter is NE of town, but still can pick it up) Decatur stations (WAND and WBUI) are also no problem to pick up. I did a rescan with the Terk antenna and started picking up Springfield stations which was pretty shocking to me. The signal strength on this tuner measures in db instead of % like most, but here's a rundown of what I'm getting with this indoor antenna:

3.1 (WCIA-DT) - 32db
3.2 (WCFN-DT) - 32db
12-1 (WILL-HD) - 28db
12-2 (WILLSD1) - 28db
12-3 (WILLSD2) - 28db
15-1 (WICD-DT) - 32db
17-1 (WAND-DT) - 30db
17-2 (WAND-SD) - 30db
20-1 (WICS-DT) - 24db
23-1 (WBUI-HD) - 32db
23-2 (WBUI-DT) - 32db
27-1 (WCCU-DT) - 21db (again I'm looking west and the transmitter is NE of me)
43-1 (WYZZ-DT) - 18db
51-1 (WEIU) - 19db (have to point the antenna south towards Charleston)
51-2 (MHz Wor) - 19db
55-1 (WRSP-DT) - 20db (if I hold the antenna up in the air it goes up to 25db)

I tried pointing towards the Bloomington/Peoria area but could not bring anything in. So not too shabby at all for an indoor antenna. (granted I am on the 5th floor) If anyone is wanting a cheap HDTV solution I'd highly recommend the OnAir GT USB HDTV box and this Terk indoor HDTV antenna.

Hi everyone. I found this place Googling HD channel list. I live in Kempton, IL. It's about half way between Chicago, and Champaign. I have Dish network, and since I am slightly closer to Champaign I get the Champaign/Springfield local channels. When I type in my address on Dish's website, or my zip code on Direct TV's, they say no local channels are available in HD. I assumed being a smaller market that there just weren't any Champaign stations that were HD yet, but looking over this forum that obviously isn't the case. Does anyone here get local HD channels through Dish, or Direct TV?

The reason why some signals are down is because it is so directional. CORERCTION: plus, you might be getting interference from your D*
feed; if you have an MPEG-4 box, you are not supposed to diplex it because it uses the over-the-air frequencies/channels as well (and if you don't, you'll be switching pretty soon anyway). My guess is that WCCU is at low power, so you may need to point the antenna at them to get them for now.

You'll need the preamp to get the Springfield stations reliably, so I wouldn't return it. Otherwise, you did everything else fine.
A new RG-6 cable will do the trick.

Hi Gilbert,
Thanks for the additional information. I've been aware for some time that Dish will be moving to the same MPEG-4 specs that DirecTV already uses, and that when that happens my diplexed run likely won't work any more. But I've secretly been hoping that C-U locals are offered in HD on Dish before that happens. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and run the RG-6. I watch so little network TV in the first place it just hardly seems worth it, but you're right; it's the smartest thing to do.

Thanks again,
-Brad

Does anyone here get local HD channels through Dish, or Direct TV?

The Champaign stations are broadcasting in HD, but neither DISH or DirecTV offer them to their subscribers yet. At some point they'll eventually add them, but I don't think either have announced any firm dates as to when that might happen. Hopefully soon!

Thank you very much.

Hi everyone. I found this place Googling HD channel list. I live in Kempton, IL. It's about half way between Chicago, and Champaign. I have Dish network, and since I am slightly closer to Champaign I get the Champaign/Springfield local channels. When I type in my address on Dish's website, or my zip code on Direct TV's, they say no local channels are available in HD. I assumed being a smaller market that there just weren't any Champaign stations that were HD yet, but looking over this forum that obviously isn't the case. Does anyone here get local HD channels through Dish, or Direct TV?
A salesperson at Good Vibes told me a few weeks ago that Directv is scheduled to provide local channels in HD in Mach 2008. Given Direct's record with following scheduled releases on new HD channels, I'm not holding my breath on the local date.

For some reason, my qam tuner is skipping WCIA. I've scanned and rescanned and it will not find it. Seems weird that it picks up the others, but not Channel 3.

Yeah my QAM tuner is also not getting WCIA.

Is anyone else having trouble with 27.1? For the third Sunday in a row, I'm missing FOX HD Football. :(

I would imagine Good Vibes does. There used to be one in Rantoul. I assume there still is. This used to be their phone: (217) 892-5622.
Thanks, but I mis-typed my question. I meant to say antenna installs in the Rantoul area.

Yeah my QAM tuner is also not getting WCIA.

I guess it's good to know that I'm not the only one. Now, I just wish I knew what happened and why it won't work when it was fine before.

Thanks! Hopefully it'll get "fixed" sometime in the future.

[rant on] I get 3-1 OTA but their sound is totally screwed up again. Loud pops during shows, etc. You have to wonder what in the world is happening at the station. WMBD 31 had sound level problems when I tuned to them on Sunday as well - normalish sound for the shows and then muted sound for the ads. I can't say having the ads muted was really a problem but again who was running the shop there? I'm beginning to think the engineers don't monitor the OTA signal. WBUI 23 gets my goat because they can't be bothered to switch to widescreen for their 7:00pm shows until after the shows start. How is this such a difficult task to accomplish? I'm looking forward to the day when the HD signal is the important thing and not the trashy 4x3 analog they seem to care so much about. WBUI never answers the damn phone and never responds to my emails. [rant off]

Hello all,

I've heard through various message boards that 21 of D* new mpeg-4 hd channels have gone live. Can anyone in the Champaign area verify this for us in Central Ilinois? I'm stuck at work and it's killing me!! BTW this will make D* the ultimate satellite provider!! Take that E*!!!

On some HD programs (luckily nothing that I watch) I've experienced video lag. It kinda reminds me of playing games with a bad fps. I first noticed it on Ugly Betty and yesterday on Boston Legal. It's not a network problem though b/c I've watched Dancing without any problems. I've also noticed it on The Simpsons before (not in HD) where basically the image stops every few seconds. It happened back home too when I used an HD antenna, so it may be an issue with my TV. Anyone know what might cause this sort of thing?

Hello all,

I've heard through various message boards that 21 of D* new mpeg-4 hd channels have gone live. Can anyone in the Champaign area verify this for us in Central Ilinois? I'm stuck at work and it's killing me!! BTW this will make D* the ultimate satellite provider!! Take that E*!!!

As long as you have an MPEG4 receiver and 5 lnb u should be set. These are National feeds regardless where you are located. Enjoy...I am still sitting here with an HR10-250...:(

T

Thump,

You need to upgrade to the 5 lnb and the HR20-700. I can verify all channels on the MPEG-4 are working for me. The BIG TEN network HD feed is going to be great for this Saturday's Illini / Penn St game!! I'll have to watch it recorded when I get home since I will be there!!

Hello all,

I've heard through various message boards that 21 of D* new mpeg-4 hd channels have gone live. Can anyone in the Champaign area verify this for us in Central Ilinois? I'm stuck at work and it's killing me!! BTW this will make D* the ultimate satellite provider!! Take that E*!!!

Shera, confirmed. I'lm loving it on my HR20!!!!

I finally faxed WSEC-DT since every e-mail I sent bounced. I also reported this issue 9 MONTHS ago on dbstalk in the OTA issues thread (that DirecTV was supposed to be watching) so DirecTV should have known about this long ago.

I got this back:

I received and read your facsimile message this afternoon... I just (1422hrs) checked the guide data we're transmitting at its source and on an over-the-air receiver and it is correct. 14-1 showed "Reading Rainbow"; 14-2 showed "War"; 14-3 showed "Create". I called Tribune Data Services and spoke with our customer rep and, sure enough, they had 14-1 & 14-2 reversed. I asked that they correct the situation and they assured me they would.

Please let me know when the on-screen guide is correct for your market (I cannot view it from here).

Surely I'm not the first one in this thread to try this route--so does anybody think it will really get fixed this time? Or maybe I am the first one ;)

I know I've talked about this here before as well, maybe as much as 2 years ago.

Obviously it isn't a station I DVR too often, but I finally had a show I really didn't want to miss. . .

You know, if DirecTV/Tribune is this bad about correcting basic stuff like this, maybe they should let me use PSIP data in the DVR guide instead of their bogus info. . .

Yesterday I called and emailed Mediacom about upcoming Hd channels and the Big 10 Network. I told them that the other local cable companies, Dish Net and Directv are kicking their butts in HD programming. That it's time to get going. The CSR asked me what channels in HD would interest me. I told her any as long as it's more than 1 channel. The customer service person didn't have any news about it. Interestingly though, I received an email reply that reads this;


Mediacom Customer Service <customerserviceso@mediacomcc.com> 2:17 am (5 hours ago)

We understand your concern and are presently working to provide more HD
channels to our channel line up. We at Mediacom continuously strive to
provide our customers with the highest and best digital products.

The next channels that are to be HD are TNT and Animal Planet. This will
happen in the near future.


Customer Service Support
1613 Natahala Beach Road
Gulf Breeze, Fl 32563


How near is the question now?
Well, I did say more than 1 channel. Oh Christ!!!

Did anyone else notice Channel 3 HD last night night, Tuesday. They are finally showing a weather graphic that won't interfere with the HD signal. That was nice. Now if Decatur, Channel 17 would start doing this as well, I will be very happy. During a bad weather night, channel 17's entire broadcast evening is SD with their ugly weather graphics.

I can't believe it's 2007 and I have to watch the baseball division series in standard definition. And that I can't get any BigTen Network games, in SD or HD. And it wasn't until just this spring that March Madness could be enjoyed in CBSHD. Or that digital Insight carries the NFL network, but not in HD.

I guess it's why anyone who cares about sports uses Dish or DTV. I don't think the satellite providers are offering anything special ... it just shows how behind it seems that the CU area is for digital television. At one time I was hoping the Comcast deal was going to make things better, but now after this BTN mess I'm not as optimistic.

Sigh. I guess I should take the plunge and switch to satellite, but I like my equipment and setup and don't really want to go through the hassle of switching. I just wish I had more options via digital cable.

Thanks for letting me rant.

TBK

Yesterday I called and emailed Mediacom about upcoming Hd channels and the Big 10 Network. I told them that the other local cable companies, Dish Net and Directv are kicking their butts in HD programming. That it's time to get going. The CSR asked me what channels in HD would interest me. I told her any as long as it's more than 1 channel. The customer service person didn't have any news about it. Interestingly though, I received an email reply that reads this;


Mediacom Customer Service <customerserviceso@mediacomcc.com> 2:17 am (5 hours ago)

We understand your concern and are presently working to provide more HD
channels to our channel line up. We at Mediacom continuously strive to
provide our customers with the highest and best digital products.

The next channels that are to be HD are TNT and Animal Planet. This will
happen in the near future.


Customer Service Support
1613 Natahala Beach Road
Gulf Breeze, Fl 32563


How near is the question now?
Well, I did say more than 1 channel. Oh Christ!!!

jpark - Your post made me chuckle because I had an almost identical experience with MediaCon this Spring when I called to ask when they would be broadcasting NBC (WAND) in HD. Just like you, the CSR had no clue for my area and told me to be patient. After I sent an email to the customer service I got a response that was identical to the one they sent you (without mentioning TBS and Animal Planet, though). It took them approximately 4 months to finally provide NBC in HD! Also, I am curious about your statement that you only get 1 HD channel. I am currently getting a dozen HD channels plus the HD feeds for my premium channels (Showtime/Starz/TMC). I wish they would offer HD broadcasts for video-on-demand selections, but maybe I am dreaming. Keep us posted on anything you find out about MediaCon, as there aren't many folks on this thread that discuss their services.

Mel

my mistake. i meant that it would be nice to receive more than 1 new channel. they mentioned 2 in the email. oh boy!!
i do receive the entire HD package that they offer.
sorry for the mess up.

Amazing--Tribune can get changes to guide data done in less than 24 hours for sports, but when a station engineer calls them and confirms a mistake in data that has been wrong for years, they can't fix it in over a week?

Yes, WSEC-DT is still wrong.

I figure if it isn't fixed by now, somebody dropped the ball again.

I've been in contact with an engineer at WBUI in regards to the missing SD subchannel (23-2) on the HR20. He contacted Tribune over a month ago, and the guide was never corrected. He said he would try again last week. So far, no changes yet.

When WCIA contacted Tribune about the missing 3-2 and 49-2 channels earlier this year, it took about 2 weeks before they showed up in the guide.

Is Fox HD in Champaign (27.1) down again - I'm getting no signal no matter where I move the antenna.

The Colts/Bucs game was fine, Prison Break was missed and Bones again tonight on my HD DVR. I checked live and got the 771 error no signal.

I moved the antenna around and nothing, so I assume they are down - can anyone confirm?

Is Fox HD in Champaign (27.1) down again - I'm getting no signal no matter where I move the antenna.

The Colts/Bucs game was fine, Prison Break was missed and Bones again tonight on my HD DVR. I checked live and got the 771 error no signal.

I moved the antenna around and nothing, so I assume they are down - can anyone confirm?


Working fine here now (11pm Wednesday) and also during Prison Break yesterday.

Thanks, I tried again after getting your note and was able to get it to work. Must have been user error . . . :confused:

Thanks, I tried again after getting your note and was able to get it to work. Must have been user error . . . :confused:

Just saw this on tvpredictions.com

Comcast Raising Monthly Rates
The cable operator notifies several markets of rate increase; high-def services cited.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (October 16, 2007) -- Comcast apparently will soon raise its monthly programming rates, in part due to added High-Definition services, according to newspaper reports.

The cable operator last implemented a monthly rate increase in January.

However, newspapers today in the states of Washington, Pennsylvania and Virginia are reporting that Comcast subscribers have been told their monthly bills will go up in November.

The rate increase ranges from 4.2 percent in the state of Washington to 7.5 percent in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to reports by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.

In Seattle, a Comcast spokesman says the rate increase is necessary because the cable operator spent $200 million on a new network and facilities.

Anyone else besides me, angry at the way WAND handles their weather graphics in their HD channel. They show the programs in SD because they don't have a graphic for the HD channel, like WCIA does. I had to watch the Office in SD just because of a stupid graphic that said Tornado Watch the entire hour. They really need to get their s*#t together!

I feel your pain Marty. 23 has been broadcasting HD in less than full screen or at least the two shows I watched last week were broadcast like that. Perhaps the weather stuff on Thursday was responsible, but I don't recall severe weather on Wednesday. As usual they've never bothered to respond to emails. I've sent several over different issues and have yet to receive a response. I can't wait until analog dies and attention is paid to digital by the stations. HD is still the ugly troll under the bridge to be ignored, it seems.

Posted this in the owners thread, maybe someone here can help out. Just got a sony KDS 55A3000 the other day. I only have basic cable but was able to get a few OTA HD channels NBC, FOX, PBS. Did a rescan of the channels, and now can't pick up the NBC channel. I am in Springfield. Any suggestions on how to get these channels back?

WAND-DT was not working several hours ago with my basic cable. It is working now. It might be the same with OTA. Try it again.

Yes rescanned again, and it picked it up. Thanks!

WAND-DT was not working several hours ago with my basic cable. It is working now. It might be the same with OTA. Try it again.

Thanks for your input to my question. I have insight cable, no cable box just channels 2-72, and can get FOX, PBS, NBC in HD. If I bought an indoor UHF/VHF indoor antenna, would I be able to get more of the local channels like CBS and ABC in HD and maybe some others?

Thanks for your input to my question. I have insight cable, no cable box just channels 2-72, and can get FOX, PBS, NBC in HD. If I bought an indoor UHF/VHF indoor antenna, would I be able to get more of the local channels like CBS and ABC in HD and maybe some others?

Insight DOES carry CBS & ABC in HD, unencrypted just like the other local HD's.
They also carry WEIU-SD PBS Charleston, as well as WAND weather radar & PBS Create on both WILL & WSEC, all in the clear as well. Not sure why you are not getting these as well. Assuming you figure this out, getting an antenna is NOT going to get you any more of our locals than you already get on cable. (not to mention the fact, since WCFN-DT is still on low power, you ain't gonna get CBS in HD with it, either)

I'm guessing the tuner in my television won't pick up the stations unless there is a program being broadcast in HD? I don't know, have only had this television for a couple of days now. dishrich, first time I set up the channels I had everything except CBS, ABC and WCFN-DT. So after watching channel 17.1 all night, I'm thinking this picture is awesome, can't wait to watch again tomorrow. the next day when I check, can't get a signal. So I ran auto program on my tv again. That is when I lost some of the HD channels. When I read the message from akyunt, I scanned for digital channels and got 17.1 and 17.2. I guess I will try and scan for those other networks when they are broadcasting an HD program. Hopefully this will work. I don't know. If those other networks are in the clear, I don't know why I am not picking them up.

I'm guessing the tuner in my television won't pick up the stations unless there is a program being broadcast in HD? I don't know, have only had this television for a couple of days now. dishrich, first time I set up the channels I had everything except CBS, ABC and WCFN-DT. So after watching channel 17.1 all night, I'm thinking this picture is awesome, can't wait to watch again tomorrow. the next day when I check, can't get a signal. So I ran auto program on my tv again. That is when I lost some of the HD channels. When I read the message from akyunt, I scanned for digital channels and got 17.1 and 17.2. I guess I will try and scan for those other networks when they are broadcasting an HD program. Hopefully this will work. I don't know. If those other networks are in the clear, I don't know why I am not picking them up.
It looks like different TVs pick up channels differently. One of my neighbours has a different brand HDTV and his channel numbers are different even though we both have the same basic cable. It appeas that your channels have the same number as mine because also I also get WAND at 17.1. There are also ABC at 15.1, CBS at 48.1 and Fox at 27.1 in the clear.

It looks like different TVs pick up channels differently. One of my neighbours has a different brand HDTV and his channel numbers are different even though we both have the same basic cable. It appeas that your channels have the same number as mine because also I also get WAND at 17.1. There are also ABC at 15.1, CBS at 48.1 and Fox at 27.1 in the clear.

True, but you do realize he's NOT on the Champaign headend - he's off the Springfield one, so some of his locals numbering will be different than yours ;)

Some TV's show the OTA's on cable on their actual PSIP assigned numbering (17.1, 20.1, etc) while others (such as your neighbors?) just show the actual/virtual cable ch# they are located on the actual cable system.

cec - do a search on previous posts of mine regarding Sony TV's NOT finding all the unencrypted channels & how to fix this. I had the same problem & figured out how to find all of them. Although my Sony does NOT remap them to their PSIP numbering, give my procedure a try & see if it works. It makes NO difference if the station is actually broadcasting in HD or not - as long as it's on the air is all that matters. ;)

cec - do a search on previous posts of mine regarding Sony TV's NOT finding all the unencrypted channels & how to fix this. I had the same problem & figured out how to find all of them. Although my Sony does NOT remap them to their PSIP numbering, give my procedure a try & see if it works. It makes NO difference if the station is actually broadcasting in HD or not - as long as it's on the air is all that matters.

Read your previous post about the Sony TV's, but have not tried it yet. Just haven't had the time lately. I had and old RF connector laying around, and a piece of flat twin lead wire about 5'. Put it on the VHF/UHF/Cable connector, set the TV to ant. did a scan and can now pick up
14.1 WSEC TV
14.2 WSEC D2
14.3 WSEC D3
17.1 WAND DT
17.2 WAND SD
20.1 WICS DT
23.1 WBUI HD
23.2 WBUI SD
44.4 (FOX)
55.1 WRSP-DT
I was a bit amazed that I could pull those in with just that. All come in excellent except for 23.1. Thinking about looking for a good mid-range indoor antenna, as I live in an apartment. Suggestions anyone?

For anyone who's interested --

WBUI (CW 23) is currently moving their studio from Decatur to Springfield. Apparently they are going to be using WRSP's studio space. This is why they are not able to currently broadcast HD OTA in full widescreen. They hope to be able to be back to a normal HD picture sometime soon, however long that may be.

Read your previous post about the Sony TV's, but have not tried it yet. Just haven't had the time lately. I had and old RF connector laying around, and a piece of flat twin lead wire about 5'. Put it on the VHF/UHF/Cable connector, set the TV to ant. did a scan and can now pick up
14.1 WSEC TV
14.2 WSEC D2
14.3 WSEC D3
17.1 WAND DT
17.2 WAND SD
20.1 WICS DT
23.1 WBUI HD
23.2 WBUI SD
44.4 (FOX)
55.1 WRSP-DT
I was a bit amazed that I could pull those in with just that. All come in excellent except for 23.1. Thinking about looking for a good mid-range indoor antenna, as I live in an apartment. Suggestions anyone?

Uh, yea, but you STILL don't get WCFN-DT, which carries CBS-HD - & which was one of the channels you were complaining about NOT getting on cable, so I'm not sure how you're better off now. :confused: :confused:
(you DO realize this is how you'll need to get CBS-HD in Spfld, right?)

As far as trying to get it with an indoor antenna, I'm not going out on a limb to suggest anything, as I already know unless you live very close to Mechanisburg, (where WCFN's tower is) you just are not going to pull it in, reliably anyway. WCFN-DT is on low power & is probably harder to get than WBUI, which IS on high-power, abet in Decatur.

Why don't you try my other suggestion first, before dicking around with an antenna - it would probably take LESS time than messing with the antenna... :confused:

Anyone heard anything about TVGOS? I sent in a ticket to Insight, hopefully I will hear back from them.

After a horrible experience with Comcast, I finally broke down last night and bought the Radio Shack VU-190 which has a length of 15'. He have a flat section of roof which meets whic a traditionally shaped ^ roof. I got a 10' mast and anchored it with an eave mount. This brought the antenna about 20' off the ground yet still just over halfway between the top and bottom of a tree to our WNW. I have probably 75-100' of RG-6 running from the antenna down to the DTV box. My father-in-law and I installed it today with very few problems. Two line related issues to note. The RG-6 from the receiver to the roof wasn't long enough so I coupled it using a grounding block DTV left behind when they moved my dishes from a pole mount to the roof (which fixed the rain fade issue.) This left an excess of about 10" which I just put around the mounting hardware for our Slimline dish.

I am having a few issues with reception. 3-1 comes in between 95-100%. 17-1 comes in anywhere from 75-83%. PBS comes in alright as well. However, ABC will not stay locked in. It got better as the sun went down but still no where close to CBS/NBC despite signal readings of 95%. FOX will not come in at all. We live over by Urbana High School which has a lot of trees in the area. So I am left with a few questions that hopefully someone can answer. I have yet to ground it, will doing so help reception at all? Could the coax being put around the Slimline mount be causing some unnecessary signal loss? Would adding another 10' section of mast (bringing it within 5-10' of the top of the trees) bring any significant improvement? And finally, would a preamp necessarily help with bringing in ABC/FOX? I timeshift 90% of my viewing so I'm not sure how viable a rotor would be. Is there a ABC/FOX affiliate to the west that I should be able to get?

Have you tried getting the Fox and ABC transmissions from Springfield, channels 55 and 20 respectively--not sure of actual transmission channels. I get good locks on both. This may require some juggling of the antenna position and if I recall correctly, mine is pointed mainly SW.

Has anyone heard any news on when Direct tv or Dish Network will carry the Champaign Locals in HD. I thought I heard someone a while back say that early next year was the date, but I haven't heard anything since. With Comcast coming, I am really considering switching to Satellite. However, I won't do it until one of them offers the Locals in HD. I don't want to go through the trouble of buying and installing an antannae. Thanks for the info.

After a horrible experience with Comcast, I finally broke down last night and bought the Radio Shack VU-190 which has a length of 15'. He have a flat section of roof which meets whic a traditionally shaped ^ roof. I got a 10' mast and anchored it with an eave mount. This brought the antenna about 20' off the ground yet still just over halfway between the top and bottom of a tree to our WNW. I have probably 75-100' of RG-6 running from the antenna down to the DTV box. My father-in-law and I installed it today with very few problems. Two line related issues to note. The RG-6 from the receiver to the roof wasn't long enough so I coupled it using a grounding block DTV left behind when they moved my dishes from a pole mount to the roof (which fixed the rain fade issue.) This left an excess of about 10" which I just put around the mounting hardware for our Slimline dish.

I am having a few issues with reception. 3-1 comes in between 95-100%. 17-1 comes in anywhere from 75-83%. PBS comes in alright as well. However, ABC will not stay locked in. It got better as the sun went down but still no where close to CBS/NBC despite signal readings of 95%. FOX will not come in at all. We live over by Urbana High School which has a lot of trees in the area. So I am left with a few questions that hopefully someone can answer. I have yet to ground it, will doing so help reception at all? Could the coax being put around the Slimline mount be causing some unnecessary signal loss? Would adding another 10' section of mast (bringing it within 5-10' of the top of the trees) bring any significant improvement? And finally, would a preamp necessarily help with bringing in ABC/FOX? I timeshift 90% of my viewing so I'm not sure how viable a rotor would be. Is there a ABC/FOX affiliate to the west that I should be able to get?


Here's your problem... Your VU-190 is too good of an antenna for your location. The 190 is very directional. Unfortunately, the Champaign-Springfield/Decatur market is terrible for antennas. Unlike most markets where the transmitters are in one general location, transmitters in your market are all over the place.

I assume you have your antenna pointed west. You'll easily pick up CBS digital 48, NBC digital 18, WBUI digital 22, WILL digital (forgot 8?). The problem is the ABC digital is located almost directly east of you and FOX is almost directly north. Your 190 antenna as such a small "beam" pointed west that you'll struggle to pick them up.

I would suggest pointing your antenna NW. You'll be aiming at nothing but you may pickup nearly everything by doing this. If this doesn't work, swap the 190 out with the smallest style rooftop antenna RS sells. It will have low enough directivity that it will work aimed west.

Good luck!

Watching the Colts and Patriots game here in Bloomington. I guess I haven't been watching much NFL on CBS this year, but am I the only one to see a few serious quality flaws with the picture? The macroblocking on nearly all the motion shots is definitely detectable with my 720p TV set. I know there are also interlacing artifacts, but this picture looks horrible compared to the 720p native broadcasting that FOX does. Does CBS have something else stealing bandwidth that leaves the signal with macroblocking on the main channel?

Has anyone heard any news on when Direct tv or Dish Network will carry the Champaign Locals in HD. I thought I heard someone a while back say that early next year was the date, but I haven't heard anything since. With Comcast coming, I am really considering switching to Satellite. However, I won't do it until one of them offers the Locals in HD. I don't want to go through the trouble of buying and installing an antannae. Thanks for the info.
Directv11 is suppose to launch in January 08. Judging by the time it took them to get new hd channels on when Directv10 launched, I would expect to see our local hd's no earlier than Mar/Apr.
Just got Directv's HR20 hooked up, and the HD picture is far better than the HR10-250. The HD was incredible on the Illini B-Ball game Wednesday night and Illini football game Saturday night. It's hard to watch a SD picture after that.

The NE-Indy game looked fine on a 60" Pioneer plasma. Did you watch it on an LCD display? The kind of things you are describing are the kind of things I seem to always see on LCD sets, even the newer ones with the faster displays.

The NE-Indy game looked fine on a 60" Pioneer plasma. Did you watch it on an LCD display? The kind of things you are describing are the kind of things I seem to always see on LCD sets, even the newer ones with the faster displays.

Yes, LCD, but what I was seeing wasn't ghosting. It was macroblocking, plain as my eye can see. It was especially noticeable when the fancy CBS computer graphics flashed across the screen. Blaming it on the LCD screen doesn't explain why I see it on CBS, but not on FOX. They do broadcast the same football, but in two different picture formats.

p.s. Just checked the online TV guide. CBS 3 re-transmits a WCFN broadcast on channel 3.2. That explains it - macroblocking due to the second channel eating up bandwidth.

Yes, LCD, but what I was seeing wasn't ghosting. It was macroblocking, plain as my eye can see. It was especially noticeable when the fancy CBS computer graphics flashed across the screen. Blaming it on the LCD screen doesn't explain why I see it on CBS, but not on FOX. They do broadcast the same football, but in two different picture formats.

p.s. Just checked the online TV guide. CBS 3 re-transmits a WCFN broadcast on channel 3.2. That explains it - macroblocking due to the second channel eating up bandwidth.

I don't think the retransmission of WCFN is the real problem. I see the macroblocking on all of CBS's football broadcasts, whether I'm watching them on WCIA (OTA), WBBM-Chicago (via DirecTV MPEG4) or WCBS-NY (via DirecTV MPEG2). Since I see the macroblocking on all these sources, I'm inclined to think it is a CBS problem, not local or DirecTV.

John C.

Can anyone of my fellow Danville-ians give me some suggestions for antennae installation? What brand, pre-amp, rotor? Thanks.:confused:

I don't think the retransmission of WCFN is the real problem. I see the macroblocking on all of CBS's football broadcasts, whether I'm watching them on WCIA (OTA), WBBM-Chicago (via DirecTV MPEG4) or WCBS-NY (via DirecTV MPEG2). Since I see the macroblocking on all these sources, I'm inclined to think it is a CBS problem, not local or DirecTV.

Interesting. I'd say that it's a bandwidth problem across the board. With WCIA transmitting a second channel, and your other two CBS stations coming from different encoding and transmission methods, it's impossible to make an apples to apples comparison. This is digging back in my memory pretty far, but I took my TV set to my aunt's house in Chicago to watch the Superbowl the past February - because WCIA wasn't on the air with High Definition. I didn't see any macroblocking there. It's definitely a small sample size to compare two different stations, but I'd say WCIA isn't helping things with their bandwidth restriction from broadcasting two separate channels.

Past experiences have shown this same problem with FOX. It's been at least a year or so, but FOX 43 here in Bloomington used to have a second channel that ate up a good amount of bandwidth. There used to be macroblocking all the time on good HD shows like Bones and House. That, and every time there was a scene change the picture would be really fuzzy for an instant before everything snapped into focus. All those problems disappeared when FOX went to broadcasting a single picture stream.

I emailed the engineering department at WCIA to complain, but I don't think they care one bit about how the picture looks to me.

I am in Paxton and need help with equipment. I am trying to get HD locals with a rooftop antenna and am not having much luck. Anyone in the area having any luck?

Hello all, pardon my relatively newness to this topic, but I'm looking for some advice on improving my HDTV reception.

My situation is that I'm in SW Champaign. I've got a Humax HDTV tuner and a Terk antenna with 100' of RG6 between (roof-to-basement run). I've fairly happy with my reception except for CBS, which sometimes is OK (a drop every 10 minutes or so) and sometimes is drops frequently enough to be unwatchable.

So, is there anything I can do to improve this reception and get CBS reception consistent (without hurting my other channels)? I've played with antenna direction and while every direction seems to be a compromise, I've currently got it pointing roughly WSW which seems best overall.

Poking around on the net, it sounds like a pre-amp might help to overcome the loss over my long cable run. Would this be reasonable to try? Assuming so, any recommendations on brand/model to try?

BTW, I only care about HDTV reception of the major networks (as opposed to FM, AM, non-HD TV). If I've left out some other useful detail, please let me know.

Thanks - Von

Hello all, pardon my relatively newness to this topic, but I'm looking for some advice on improving my HDTV reception.

My situation is that I'm in SW Champaign. I've got a Humax HDTV tuner and a Terk antenna with 100' of RG6 between (roof-to-basement run). I've fairly happy with my reception except for CBS, which sometimes is OK (a drop every 10 minutes or so) and sometimes is drops frequently enough to be unwatchable.

So, is there anything I can do to improve this reception and get CBS reception consistent (without hurting my other channels)? I've played with antenna direction and while every direction seems to be a compromise, I've currently got it pointing roughly WSW which seems best overall.

Poking around on the net, it sounds like a pre-amp might help to overcome the loss over my long cable run. Would this be reasonable to try? Assuming so, any recommendations on brand/model to try?

BTW, I only care about HDTV reception of the major networks (as opposed to FM, AM, non-HD TV). If I've left out some other useful detail, please let me know.

Thanks - Von

Ditch the Terk and get a decent UHF outdoor antenna. Radio Shack sells a nice corner yagi that you can mount in an attic, or you can get a bow-tie type from Winegard on-line. I have a Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna mounted in my attic and pointed a tad SW, and WCIA pegs the needle on my DirecTV receivers. You shouldn't be having problems getting WCIA with a decent antenna.

John C.

Has anyone else been having problems with reception on HDTV channels provided by Insight?

i too live in paxton. i've used an indoor amplified radio shack set of rabbit ears. had to adjust every once in awhile but overall, not a bad deal getting OTA HD locals. got strong signals too.
like in a previous post, the transmitters for our local channels are scatterd everywhere, so a multi-directional antenna would be best. not guaranteeing success without adjustments every so often. an antenna rotor hooked up to the post would be an option. that way you could adjust from indoors. pm me if you need more help.

Has anyone heard any news on when Direct tv or Dish Network will carry the Champaign Locals in HD. I thought I heard someone a while back say that early next year was the date, but I haven't heard anything since. With Comcast coming, I am really considering switching to Satellite. However, I won't do it until one of them offers the Locals in HD. I don't want to go through the trouble of buying and installing an antannae. Thanks for the info.
A sales rep at Good Vibes told me about a month ago that he thought Direct will be offering local channels in March or April 2008 as jdh8668 predicted.

Does anyone know if there is a way to find out how many customers Insight has lost due to the lack of the Big Ten Network? I am getting close to switching when Comcast comes to town, espacially after I found out that Comcast does not offer the HD Net or HD Net Movie channels.

Thanks Marty,
That is good news. I am not sure if I want to go with Dish or Direct. I am open to both but with dish you get the HD DVR for free and with Direct you have to pay two or three hundred dollars. But if Direct tv gets the locals in HD first, I might have to fork over the money.

I spoke with one of the techs at DTV last week and from the sounds of it the issue is with existing contracts now. Apparently another provider (Insight/Comcast?) has an agreement with the locals that is causing some issues. While it wouldn't surprise me if it was true, I've learned not to take anything local related from DTV as the absolute truth. Keep your finger crossed that D11 goes up without any issues here (or once it's in the air like this last one had.)

Also to follow up my last post. Would an amplifier help me pull in FOX/ABC down in Springfield? I'd love to swap out the antenna as suggested but without packaging, I'm not sure how receptive RS would be to that.

Is anyone else having problems with WAND's HD Channel. I was watching the Today Show on WAND HD through Insight, but now the HD signal doesn't come in? The SD channel comes, though. I was wondering if this is a transmission issue from WAND or an Insight cable issue?

I checked WAND HD channel at 12:00 noon, and it seems to be fine now. Not sure what was going on earlier in the day.

Does anyone know what has happened with WCCU-DT on Insight? I had always picked it up on channel 73.3 using my QAM tuner, but it has not come through for the past two days. Has Insight changed the channel number in Champaign, or is the signal not coming through at all?

I had problems with WCCU on Mediacon tonight around 8:00...it was freezing up and the signal was breaking up. So I would guess there is a transmission problem.

Mel

On Insight Cable I am not getting any HD signal at all for WCCU. I can pick it up on the SD channel OK. I know that WCCU was having problems with their HD equipment and were broadcasting the HD signal from their Springfield station. I hope they have this fixed for Sunday's football games.

On Insight Cable I am not getting any HD signal at all for WCCU. I can pick it up on the SD channel OK. I know that WCCU was having problems with their HD equipment and were broadcasting the HD signal from their Springfield station. I hope they have this fixed for Sunday's football games.

I can pick up the WCCU HD signal on my antenna without any trouble so I think that this must be an Insight issue.

I can pick up the WCCU HD signal on my antenna without any trouble so I think that this must be an Insight issue.
Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering who I could yell at; now I know it is Insight.

As of Sunday, WCCU HD is still down on Insight. Since Comcast is taking over soon, has Insight decided to tank the next few months in Illinois?

As of Sunday, WCCU HD is still down on Insight. Since Comcast is taking over soon, has Insight decided to tank the next few months in Illinois?
I spoke to an Insight CS rep here in Urbana, and she claimed it is a problem with WCCU's equipment. When the problem originially came up Insight was transmitting the Springfield Fox channel.

I agree that Insight is just biding its time until Comcast takes over. I, for one, am not looking forward to Comcast. If my research is correct we will lose HD Net and HD Net Movie channels. And don't get me started on the Big Ten Network, which we stand to lose over half the U of I basketball season without the Big Ten Network. It is getting close to time to look at Direct & Dish.

I got home about 5:00 pm tonight, 11/19 and noticed that HD Net and HD Net Movie channels aren't even broadcasting through Insight. Does anyone know what is up with this?

When my set turned on for "Torchwood" on HDNet tonight and got no signal, I tried HDnet Movies. Nothing there, either.

I too noted that Comcast doesn't carry those services in Chicagoland. There has been no notice of changes, but I wonder if this is indeed the beginning of the end for interesting Cable programming in C-U.

When my set turned on for "Torchwood" on HDNet tonight and got no signal, I tried HDnet Movies. Nothing there, either.

I too noted that Comcast doesn't carry those services in Chicagoland. There has been no notice of changes, but I wonder if this is indeed the beginning of the end for interesting Cable programming in C-U.
I just called Insight and was told that HD Net and HD Net Movie channels are back. He also said that the Fox channel is back as well. Since I am not at home right now, so I can't confirm this myself.

The HDnet channels re-appeared about 10am. I didn't check Fox.

WCCU-DT (fox) is still not working for my insights basic cable.

The 910 Fox Channel should be working on Insight now, but I think 914 is still not in HD yet.

Is CBS WCIA transmitting HD off their large tower? I’m a dish subscriber living in Chatham and I get all local Springfield networks in HD with my external antenna. I’ve never received a CBS digital signal. I currently do not get WILL either but I believe I did at one time. If this is the best CBS will get then I may have to look into another antenna. I'm currently using a Channel Master 4 bay bow tie antenna that is 70 miles from the CBS tower.

Is CBS WCIA transmitting HD off their large tower? I’m a dish subscriber living in Chatham and I get all local Springfield networks in HD with my external antenna. I’ve never received a CBS digital signal. I currently do not get WILL either but I believe I did at one time. If this is the best CBS will get then I may have to look into another antenna. I'm currently using a Channel Master 4 bay bow tie antenna that is 70 miles from the CBS tower.

Hello Don, and welcome to the forum!

Yes, WCIA is on their main tower at 1 million watts. From 70 miles out, you will need the ChannelMaster 4228 (you have the 4221) to get it...and if you are even behind a small hill, you may not get it. 60 miles is about the range for normal line-of-sight of WCIA, but if you get it high in the air enough (and maybe use a preamplifier), you have a decent shot of getting it.

I am on the north west side of Springfield and I just get CBS from wcia. I also get the CBS station from Peoria with the same antenna pointed the same direction. I do not get will.

I am now a Dish subscriber as of last week. Does anyone get program info for Fox 55 digital? All I get is Fox Digital Service with nothing to set the DVR to.

bearcatdon/sebenste - You both DO realize you'd be BETTER off just trying for 49.2, which ALSO is CBS-HD - considering he's only down the road from me in Chatham, he should be able to pull it in MUCH easier than trying for 3.1 - I have NO problems pulling it in. ;)

Other than the ch numbering being different, the service is EXACTLY the same as trying to pull it in ALL the way from Champaign, so why everyone keeps wanting to do it the hard way is beyond me... :confused:

I am on the north west side of Springfield and I just get CBS from wcia. I also get the CBS station from Peoria with the same antenna pointed the same direction. I do not get will.

Same thing above - have you tried 49.2?
Also, you DO realize WILL-DT is on 9, so unless you have some sort of VHF antenna, WILL-DT is probably a no-go.

I am now a Dish subscriber as of last week. Does anyone get program info for Fox 55 digital? All I get is Fox Digital Service with nothing to set the DVR to.

Don't know about DISH DVR's, but I get the prog information just fine on my HD DirecTV Tivo...

Channel 55 program info shows up on my Dish 622 just fine. The problem with Dish is that you get program info for the Springfield ABC station (channel 20) and not the Champaign one (channel 15). Since my OTA antenna gets channel 20, its no real problem for me.

Though WILL is VHF I get it just fine with a UHF only antenna in SW Champaign.

Same thing above - have you tried 49.2?
Also, you DO realize WILL-DT is on 9, so unless you have some sort of VHF antenna, WILL-DT is probably a no-go.


Oh Yea :o I should have said I get cbs from 49.2. That is wcia though, right?

EXACTLY the same thing as if you can/could get 3.1 directly from Champaign.
Just as the folks in Champaign can get 49.1 via 3.2. ;) ;)

Though WILL is VHF I get it just fine with a UHF only antenna in SW Champaign.

Yes, amazing difference how being 50+ miles CLOSER to the tower makes... ;) :D

Anyone else having problems with FOX 55 since it switched from 27 on Insight. It seems that if it's in a show broadcast in HD it won't show anything, but when there's a show not in HD (like sex and the city) I get reception. It also seems that if I'm watching something not in HD and it goes into a HD show, I get it, but if I change the channel and go back I lose it again.

PrairieWind,

Similar to what happened in July, the TV Guide downloads have stopped for me. I sent you a private message but I thought I'd post here just to see if anyone else local uses TVGOS and has had a problem lately.

I will plan on calling Rick at WILL but I wanted to up my odds that the problem is not on my end...prevent the cry wolf syndrome. If you (or anyone else in the area) is having the same problems, I'll feel more confident making the call.

The July conversation: http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11012578#post11012578

I waited almost a week to post the problem here and within a few hours of posting the problem has fixed itself.

Go figure.

Anyone else irritated with WAND with their continual weather warnings that prevent them from showing programs in HD. Last night the Sunday Night Football game was broadcast in SD because of the Ice Storm Warning posting. I wish someone at that station would talk to the people at WCIA and see what they are doing with their graphics to ensure that the programming is broadcast in HD. I want to watch Journeyman tonight, but I should prepare myself that it will not be in HD.

I think it's a matter of having the right equipment to generate crawls and other messages while in HD. WCIA must have just purchased this equipment because they used to do the same thing. The market is so small for broadcast equipment that it tends to be extraordinarily expensive.

It wouldn't hurt to send the station an e-mail complaint. Maybe that would move the purchase priority higher on the list.

Same thing above - have you tried 49.2?

Don't know about DISH DVR's, but I get the prog information just fine on my HD DirecTV Tivo...

Hello all,

I am finally getting on the HD bandwagon and am starting to do research. I live pretty much in the middle of Springfield and I am looking for a decent antenna to put in my attic (1 story house) to pick up local HD channels. From what dishrich has said we can now get WCIA on 49.2 which seems to have been the hardest local to get. I will be using a HR20-100S D* box with the antenna feed going directly into it. Anyone see any problems with this setup, if so recommendations are welcome.

Thanks
prrthd

Well first of all, 49.2 HAS been available in HD since the day 3.1 went HD - I just don't understand why more people don't know this.

But, DO understand that 49.2 is still on low power, & will NOT be going to high power on it's current DT channel 53. While you are NOT going to pull this in with rabbit ears on the top of your TV, an outdoor antenna usually pulls it in with no problems in the Springfield metro area. After 2/17/09, 49.2 WCFN-DT be moving to ch 13. (presumably on full power, but with Nexstar, who knows... :confused: )

With that all said, putting any antenna in an atic, especially in a single story house, is going to cut your signal down by at least 1/3 to 2/3, depending on your house structure. If you can put it up outside, you would be better off, especially trying to pull in the current 49.2.

Considering that WCFN-DT will be moving to ch 13, as well as WILL-DT is on ch 9, you should go with a V/U combo antenna - a medium small to medium sized one should suffice. I usually suggest adding a high-input pre-amp as well, for keeping the signal strength more consistant, as well as if you decide to feed it to more than 1 device. (keep in mind your HR20 has an internal 2-way split, to feed both tuners)

Hello, I live in Champaign. I am considering going to good vibes to change to direct tv from insight. Looking for some advice. Good idea? Can you get any network feeds in HD? HD quality the same? Thanks

Hello, I live in Champaign. I am considering going to good vibes to change to direct tv from insight. Looking for some advice. Good idea? Can you get any network feeds in HD? HD quality the same? Thanks
Right now there is no way to get the network feeds in HD. There is talk that Direct will have the local network channels in HD sometime in the spring of 2008. The only way to get local channels in HD right now is to install an antannae to get them over the air. Good Vibes will install an antannae at the time they put up the satellite dish for about $200 additionally. I think some of the people here have that set up.

For any Insight customers with HD, have you called the local office to confirm that Comcast will keep the same HD channels on the lineup when they take over in January? I hope so, because most cities that have Comcast don't have the HD Net and HD Net Movie channels on their system. These are two channels that I can't live without.

I usually suggest adding a high-input pre-amp as well, for keeping the signal strength more consistant, as well as if you decide to feed it to more than 1 device. (keep in mind your HR20 has an internal 2-way split, to feed both tuners)

Rich, I'm in Champaign and have trouble pulling in 15.1 consistently. I've got a Wingard 4400 on the roof of a single story that feeds an HR20 with less than 100 feet of quad-shield RG-6. What amp/pre-amp would you recommend for my situation?

Thanks!

Well, before I would suggest a pre-amp to "fix" your problem, a couple other suggestions: (might be obvious, but...)

- is your antenna pointed at WICD-DT, or do you have it pointed in another direction to pull in other stations as well? Multipath can still cause problems with DT signals, contrary to some people's opinons, especially on closer stations.
- any splitters in your line to the HR20 (I assume not, but u know what happens when u assume...)

Have you tried checking the signal strength through your HR20 on ch 41? (WICD-DT is on this channel) That could help also telling me potential problems.

If these are not the problem, it's also very possible that you might have too MUCH signal going to the HR20. DT tuners can be overloaded more easily than analog ones & since you are in Champaign, it's possible adding a pre-amp could make things worse. Just for the hell of it, you could try padding the signal down a tad, by either adding a attenuator pad (5db or so) or put a splitter -in-line to knock it down some & see if that doesn't solve your problem.

Hello, I live in Champaign. I am considering going to good vibes to change to direct tv from insight. Looking for some advice. Good idea? Can you get any network feeds in HD? HD quality the same? Thanks

You could also "move" your service to Chicago & get their network feeds through the dish. Myself & a couple others on here have done this & it works great - all "big 4" nets & CW are in HD. The HD spot beams seem to reach down here with no problems. And, if you still want to, you can still put up an antenna & get our locals through the same receiver, while keeping the Chicago nets on your account through the dish - best of both worlds. Also, do keep in mind that on both DISH & DirecTV, that neither carries WICD or WCCU - you actually get WICS & WRSP instead. You also do not have to deal with the Chicago locals constantly pre-empting network prog, like our yahoos down here like to do. :rolleyes:

Do a search on "moving" on www.satelliteguys.us for more info on how to do this. ;)

Anyone else seeing unusually low signal strengths on WCCU (Fox) OTA today? Normally I can get a signal of 90+ without any difficulty, but today about the best I can do is 70-75 and the signal keeps cutting out. I've tried multiple compass directions.

I'm in the far east portion of The People's Republic of Urbana.

Yea, my signal for WCCU is weak as well. Normally around 90, but today it is around 70 and not HD.

Mel

Mediacom in Effingham only has the 4:3 feed as well on the WCCU HD channel, though it's at least (slightly) superior to the SD analog feed. This would happen my first Sunday with an HD set.

Is anyone else having problems picking up WBUI 23-DT on a media center PC? It's been a couple of weeks at least since I've been able to receive it. I get a signal strength but no picture. This happened earlier in the year with WICS I think but that turned out to be an error in the broadcast signal that was quickly corrected after they were contacted. My TVs receive 23 without any problems; it's just the two Vista Media Centers I have. I emailed 23's engineer but never received a reply. They are now in Springfield with Channel 55 I think and not readily available. Any ideas?

Is anyone else having problems picking up WBUI 23-DT on a media center PC? It's been a couple of weeks at least since I've been able to receive it. I get a signal strength but no picture. This happened earlier in the year with WICS I think but that turned out to be an error in the broadcast signal that was quickly corrected after they were contacted. My TVs receive 23 without any problems; it's just the two Vista Media Centers I have. I emailed 23's engineer but never received a reply. They are now in Springfield with Channel 55 I think and not readily available. Any ideas?

Same here on MCE2005. Still showing the same signal strength as always, but haven't been able to tune it for at least a week.

I'll try to get in contact with someone again tomorrow. Maybe if others call about the problem they will respond. They have never responded to any emails I've ever sent. I may have to put a letter in their FCC file if they don't respond.

Based on previous recommendations from here I purchased a small radio shack antenna and a channel master amp. After insight finally started providing locals in HD, I put them away. Now that I am switching to direct I will get them back out. My question is about the direct hd dvr. I was offered either the newest (silver) or the older (black) one. Sorry I don't know model numbers. It was recommended that I take the older (black) one to allow OTA recording. Is there any reason I should consider the newer one? Thanks

Based on previous recommendations from here I purchased a small radio shack antenna and a channel master amp. After insight finally started providing locals in HD, I put them away. Now that I am switching to direct I will get them back out. My question is about the direct hd dvr. I was offered either the newest (silver) or the older (black) one. Sorry I don't know model numbers. It was recommended that I take the older (black) one to allow OTA recording. Is there any reason I should consider the newer one? Thanks

No.

John C.

Thanks, I just read a lot about the hr20 vs hr21 at dbstalk.