The other night I noticed my Olevia added channels 7.3 and 7.4, perhaps during the day when I was at work. there's no program there now. But I wonder if they were doing some on-air testing? More channels coming?
10.3 doesn't seem to have anything in the guide on my rcvr's either, something like "RTN Test".
I was able to rx CH55 (is it 55, the religious station?) out in Amsterdam when I had the UHF Yagi in the attic, strangely enough. The CM 4228 on the roof won't rx it, but all the Albany locals are now reliable so I guess that's the trade off. I was also able to rx a CH48? with the attic yagi, which I thought said WRNN in Kingston. Not with the 4228.
I will miss the "weak signal" aspect of analog, I have no problem watching an interesting program with a bit of "snow", especially if it's a long distance away. Digital TV definitely defines our geographical boudaries.

The digital signal is strange.. Believe or not I live in the middle of Poughkeepsie. 65 miles south of Albany and I pick up every UHF digital Albany station except 23, but from what I've read thats a VHF signal..My antenna, which I have in my attic pointing north is only a UHF antenna.... But I get that 23 on analog.. I also don't get the 13's but again VHF..

A few years ago on a whim I stuck this antenna in my attic and pointed it north, expecting nothing because of the distance.. I get a 90+ signal on all the digital stations, and again I'm 65 miles south.. So the signals must zip down the Hudson river, unobstructed..But if I turn the antenna around towards NYC, which is about 80 miles from here I get absolutely nothing..No analog or digital..

The terrain must be the key.

I will miss the "weak signal" aspect of analog, I have no problem watching an interesting program with a bit of "snow", especially if it's a long distance away. Digital TV definitely defines our geographical boundaries.

A snowy analog picture needs about 26 db signal to noise ratio to lock to sync, weaker than that and all you see is diagonal lines. A digital picture is perfect at 16 db S/N. The numerous UHF DTV signals defines the boundaries more than digital itself.

For instance, I can get either WCAX or WFSB on channel 3 depending on where I aim my antenna. I can't get either WFSB-DT or WCAX-DT, both of which are UHF.

10-3 says RTN Test in the guide.

WRGB CBS6 is now producing its local news in HD.

Hello to all, new member here from the central Berkshires. I just installed my new DirecTv system with a HR70 receiver with the $9.95 HD package connected to a Sony KDF 50 LCD projection with Bose surround. What a killer picture from this system!
I have an older Channel Master U/V/FM antenna up about 30ft. and have excellent results with OTA digital for 6, 10, 13, 17, and 23. My receiver auto detects channel 45 WCWN and 55 WYPX, but no signal is shown on the diagnostics. Where are these 2 channels broadcast from...anyone know? I am part of the Albany market, so I assume these are also from Capital District area.
My home is rural at about 1600 ft., with a clear shot to Albany and south to the Rip VanWinkle.
I wish to replace my old OTA antenna with a 8 bay Channel Master with a new rotor, any dealers in the Albany area?
Thanks and looking forward to using this forum, great questions and great info!
Steve

WRGB CBS6 is now producing its local news in HD.

excellent news.
;)

55 WYPX is out of Amsterdam.
45 WCWN is in the antenna farm with the rest of them.
If you read back a couple pages you'll find that alot of people have an issue with 45 WCWN reception.
No cures for it yet.

I wish to replace my old OTA antenna with a 8 bay Channel Master with a new rotor, any dealers in the Albany area?

You need both VHF and UHF. You could use the existing antenna for VHF and add a 4228 for UHF. A Channel Master 7777 preamp has separate inputs for VHF and UHF, or use a VHF/UHF separator/joiner.

Try Stark Electronics in Worcester, MA.

Thanks for the info folks, I was under the impression that the digital and HD signal from 6, 10 and 13 were upconverted to the UHF band and analog was staying with VHF for the time being. I am a bit new to this digital technology, is there a portable signal level meter available for digital antenna aiming, or is it basically "point and hope" method?
Thanks for the Stark Electronics info, I had bought Channel Master stuff from them years ago, and forgot about them.
As I am watching now, 6-1 news is in HD, 6-3 has high 60's for signal, but black screen, 10-1, 10-2 and 10-3 are clean with high 70's for signal. 13-1,2 and 3 are clean with high 70's signal. 17-1,2 and 3 are clean with high 60's signal. 23-1 and 2 are also clean with high 80's. Also 45-1 with low 60's high 50's is clean too.
I seem to be doing fair to good with the old Channel Master and it's pre-amp, it's been unfailing for the past 20 or so years, and in good shape at this ice covered elevation!
Thanks;
Steve

old chebbys:
The first post in this thread shows the digital broadcasts, including the channels they're really on. In particular, this should partly explain why you see nothing on 6-3:
6-3/39 WRGB-DT (Doppler Radar), Albany, NY 480i *Hidden on Most Receivers

The reason it's hidden is elsewhere in the thread (here's a hint: stupid FCC regs).

You seem to be getting all the Albany stations you should, but to see what's available go to www.antennaweb.org and plug in your zip+4. You can get a list and a map to show where to aim.

One pointing trick is to optimize on one or more analog channels coming from the same direction. In this area that's true of all the major channels except 13. Make sure you can get 6 analog fairly well, because WRGB plans to move their digital broadcast to that channel after the analog shutdown.

DISH has no idea when they will broadcast HD locals!

I just wanted to vent my frustration with Dish Network's inability to provide so much as a target date for the transmission of HD locals. I am assured time and again that if Direct TV has begun transmission that Dish will follow, and I come home from work each day hoping, only to be disappointed. I have spoken to an engineer at one of the local stations, I have spoken to American Satellite, and I have spoken to Dish, time and again, to no avail.

I cannot get OTA in the part of the city I am in, I have tried any number of antennas. And locals in SD are hardly worth watching.

The playoffs are over this weekend. I just want to watch the Super Bowl in HD.

I'm done with my tantrum.

I cannot get OTA in the part of the city I am in, I have tried any number of antennas. And locals in SD are hardly worth watching.


Agreed, I can't watch SD either.

It's unusual that there is a spot in Albany that doesn't work for over the air. Have you tried your location in www.tvfool.com? If you post the results here we might be able to suggest a better antenna.

Tower Guy, the issue appears to be the tall buildings in my vicinity. I have buildings of 15 stories or more directly to the south and southwest of my apartment. The signals are at 262 degrees at 13.2 miles according to TVFool - It appears I am more or less in direct shadow of one. The only antenna I have not tried that was recommended was the PHDTV1 due to its local unavailability, and my reluctance to buy something that I have to ship back. I cannot use an outdoor antenna, as I am in an apartment building.

Regarding the PHDTV1-

I live in Albany a couple of blocks away from the Western Ave/Madison Ave intersection and recently sold my Zenith Silver Sensor (same as the PHDTV1,UHF only) due to reliability. I could never get the VHF channels and every night I was adjusting the antenna just to receive any given UHF channel. Basically it just didn't work well for me.

I cannot use an outdoor antenna, as I am in an apartment building.

Is it possible to put a smaller UHF only such as the Radio Shack U-75 outdoors next to the satellite dish?

Directv now has locals in HD. And channel 6 news is looking pretty good now in HD, except when they show video of stories, then the black lines on the side.

Channel 19, from my outdoor antenna, a UHF remote of channel 10 (WTEN Albany) broadcast from Mt. Greylock in Adams, Mass. is now in HD this morning.
Steve

Is it possible to put a smaller UHF only such as the Radio Shack U-75 outdoors next to the satellite dish?

I do not have roof access, perhaps though I will discuss it with my landlord.

I think legally a landlord has to provide such access for TV/Satellite reception or provide a group/community antenna and sat system.

You are correct.

I realize RetroTV appears to still be "testing"(though the schedule appears pretty well fixed and broadcast data is still incorrect, Gomer Pyle bears little resemblance to Frank Cannon... :) [onscreen guide data is an hour behind current schedule as I type, guess somebody forgot to allow for daylight savings?] ), but I sent in a schedule request for Schedules Direct. TitanTV has listings, but some appear wrong -possibly drawn from another market which doesn't have exactly the same lineup due to other locals having agreements to run a particular show in a particular geographic area already in place.

Anyhow, if anyone is interested, this is 10-3 RetroTV's lineup, as far as I can tell:

Monday - Friday
10:00 AM - Streets of San Francisco
11:00 AM - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
12:00 PM - Love American Style
12:30 PM - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
01:00 PM - Cannon
02:00 PM - The Fugitive
03:00 PM - Kojak
04:00 PM - Marcus Welby M.D.
05:00 PM - Get Smart
05:30 PM - Hogan's Heroes
06:00 PM - Ironside
07:00 PM - The Rockford Files
08:00 PM - Matlock
09:00 PM - Hawaii 5-O
10:00 PM - Magnum, P. I.
11:00 PM - Mission Impossible
12:00 AM - The Untouchables

Saturday
10:00 AM - The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew
11:00 AM - The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew
12:00 PM - Bonanza
01:00 PM - Rawhide
02:00 PM - Marshall Dillon
03:00 PM - Gunsmoke
04:00 PM - The Wild Wild West
05:00 PM - RTN Mystery Theater (2 hrs) ("McCloud", McMillan & Wife, Columbo, etc?)
07:00 PM - Emergency!
08:00 PM - The A-Team
09:00 PM - Simon & Simon
10:00 PM - Airwolf
11:00 PM - Off Beat Cinema (2hours)

Sunday
10:00 AM - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
11:00 AM - Alias Smith & Jones
12:00 PM - Bonanza
01:00 PM - Rawhide
02:00 PM - Marshall Dillon
03:00 PM - Gunsmoke
04:00 PM - The Wild Wild West
05:00 PM - The Monkees
05:30 PM - The Monkees
06:00 PM - Emergency!
07:00 PM - Emergency!
08:00 PM - The A-Team
09:00 PM - Simon and Simon
10:00 PM - The A-Team
11:00 PM - It Takes a Thief
12:00 AM - It Takes a Thief

Three new HD channels added to TWC yesterday...

HBO HD West
Cinemax HD
Cinemax HD West

All 3 are using SDV & require subscription to the corresponding premium package.

Off topic-

Whatever happened to the local North River Broadcast forum?, hasn't been accessible for awhile now.

and the Sirius repeater downtown has been offline for the past hour. :(

Three new HD channels added to TWC yesterday...

HBO HD West
Cinemax HD
Cinemax HD West

All 3 are using SDV & require subscription to the corresponding premium package.Albany Time Warner's Switched Digital Video Network is operational and performs reasonably well.

I pay ~$135.00 per month to receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 HD channels from this region's sole Cable TV provider and I am very disappointed that I have to use an SA8300HDC :rolleyes:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzequg9f/sa8300.JPG

in order to watch HD SDV programming on my PRO-150FD :mad:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzequg9f/pro-150fd.JPG

Hello everyone, I have a few questions for all of you gurus about receiving OTA HD from Albany. I've been toying with OTA for fun but I'm really getting fed up with cable and ready to get serious with OTA.

I live in north Poughkeepsie, 62 miles away from the Albany tower on a small hill with an unobstructed view of the Hudson river. Bought the Terk HDTVi antenna ~2 years ago and mounted it outside on my porch. This is what I get with that little devil on a Samsung DTB-H260F tuner:


WTEN (ch.26-10.1,10.2,10.3) - 100% of the time, no problems
WMHT (ch.34-17.1,17.2,17.3) - about 90% of the time OK, sometimes weak esp in bad weather
WRGB (ch.39-6.1) - used to work sporadically, now gone for about 1 year
WXXA (ch.7) - never
WNYT (ch.12) - never
WRNN (ch.48) and WTBY (ch.54) - 100% but don't care



1) Any idea why I'm not getting WRGB? The transmitter is supposed to have 600 kW of power, 2x more than WMHT but I never see it.

2) Are there any plans to move WXXA and WNYT from VHF to UHF? Any other changes expected soon and/or in Feb 2009 when the analog frequencies are supposed to free up?

3) Please provide recommendations for a roof mounted antenna given my distance and reception. I'd really like to avoid the VHF antenna monsters...any chance the CM 4228 could pick up the VHF channels? I'm pretty sure it will pick-up all the UHF with ease and a few posts in this thread suggest it does get VHF.

I'd also like to offer some observations...I've had an HDTV for a very long time and many sources over the years. This is my take on things:


OTA - best picture and sound quality, best price :)
Dish HD/VOOM - good picture quality, reliable but pricey
Cablevision - fair picture quality, heavy compression, lots of pixelation with fast movement, not very reliable, sound often not Dolby Digital, inexpensive with Broadcast Basic
DirecTV (pre-MPEG4) - WORST picture quality, pricey, forget it... not sure if it has improved with MPEG4.


Until the paid services let me PICK MY OWN channels a la carte instead of forcing me into USELESS packages, I'm going OTA only.

Any suggestions appreciated.

I searched for this elsewhere and no luck, so I'll ask here.

My niece attends Marist College and she said her and her friends rented a 50" TV for the Super Bowl. Just out of curiousity I checked out the provider for their campus and it's Falls Earth cable. According to their channel line up, I don't see a Fox-HD channel anywhere, although there is a CBSHD,NBCHD and others. I believe they use an STB.
They get WNYW FOX5 (NYC) and WXXA 23 as part of the channel line up. My question is if they simply bypass the STB and plug in the cable directly into the TV, will they be able to get the SB in HD by tuning to 5.1 or 23.1 ( assuming the subchannels are getting provided by Falls Earth?) I would hate for them to have gone through all that trouble to throw a party and rent a TV, and not have it in HD. Thanks

UltraP, WRGB will be moving back to rf6 at the conclusion of the transition. You may want to work on your VHF reception.

mikepier, I would have to infer that your niece is S.O.L.

UltraP, WRGB will be moving back to rf6 at the conclusion of the transition. You may want to work on your VHF reception.

mikepier, I would have to infer that your niece is S.O.L.

Is Falls Earth a cable provider, or are they just a sub contractor that provides CATV to colleges and universities?

Is Falls Earth a cable provider, or are they just a sub contractor that provides CATV to colleges and universities?
From the Falls Earth website (http://www.fallsearth.com/about.cfm):
Falls Earth Station opened its doors in Madison, NY, providing cable television services to its first university system in 1982. Today the company is a market leader in the design, construction, integration and operation of technological systems, providing installation and support services to approximately 30 core clients, including several major universities and institutions in the Northeast. Falls Earth Station specializes in CATV/IPTV, data networking, surveillance and access control systems; and the convergence of these services to provide campus and institutional environments with efficient, cost-effective solutions designed specifically to meet their individual needs.

UltraP,

You may not desire it, but I think you might need one of those "horrible" roof, mast, or tower mounted beasts afterall... While all the stations you're trying to get are nicely grouped, you're quite a distance away and several are VHF and on the low end of the band which as I recall means longer wavelengths and longer antenna elements to maximize signal.(Actual channel 7 for D23, and actual 6 again in 2009 for 6-1, I think, and D13 on actual VHF12)

I'm about 20 miles from the antenna farm and in the same general direction as you (south, the farm is 9 degrees magnetic north from me) and get 6, 10, 13, 17, 23 & 45 quite well(far better than the analogs ever came in) considering an OLD Radio Shack VU-190 antenna mounted at only 12-15 feet, missing better than half the longer elements and shooting through the crotch of a tree only 20 feet away and directly in line with the antenna farm.(I've gotta raise it, move it and add a mast mounted amp to really maximize signal) The signal varies from the MDP-130(32-64%) or my HDTV's tuner(50-82%). From around 28% on with the MyHD MDP-130 I'm golden and recording perfect HDTV on a nightly basis with the MDP-130.

Why not check www.tvfool.com and get a plot of antenna strengths at your location and play with the antenna height settings and see what sort of antenna range is recommended for your location?(color coded) Radio Shack is still selling the VU-190 last I checked and they're only about $100. Check with the local installers and see what they say you'll need for your area. If you can find a Radio Shack employee that knows their stuff see what others have had luck with in your area. Better yet, open your eyes and see what others are using for antennas. You really do have to look a bit, despite what people say, the only people who really notice them are the ones looking for them -and usually with an axe to grind. Most people who are familiar with seeing them just ignore them.

Good Luck.

I live in north Poughkeepsie, 62 miles away from the Albany tower on a small hill with an unobstructed view of the Hudson river.

1) Any idea why I'm not getting WRGB? The transmitter is supposed to have 600 kW of power, 2x more than WMHT but I never see it.

Are you very close to WPKF? If so, it could be the source of interference. An FM trap may be needed.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM234580.html

Here's one such product:

https://www.tselectronic.com/winegard/ft7500.html?tse_Session=664fde503b0cc1b517311a038c3c51cb

I can give some details on falls Earth workings...at least at RPI in terms of TV. Basically, Falls Earth, at least at RPI, and I would assume its the same elsewhere, is a contractor/liscensee of Directv. Basically, here at RPI, they have a directTV reciever for every channel they get, each tuner is permanently programmed into a specific channel. This is all on campus. The outs on those boxes are then put into a system, I believe provided by Falls earth which remodulates all those channels into a cable system, with the hd and digital channels converted to qam, and the Analog channels converted into NTSC, and from there carried as a normal cable system. You will notice sometimes, a channel will go out, and you will see the bouncing DirectTV logo.

So, to answer your original question about fox, it is unlikely they would have it being broadcast on QAM, although the HD channels they do have are. Those HD channels, at least here, are new this year, and at RPI we do have WXXAHD, so it's possible they are being tested elsewhere.

I was watching the Pro Bowl on Fox 23 yesterday (yes, a slow day indeed for TV viewing) and I was quite annoyed with the audio drops/stutters that would arise as the station would (apparently) switch to local control for commercials. When the (apparent) switch back was taking place in a timely fashion after getting back from commercial, I just ended up bailing and watching a recorded program (ironically, from Fox 23 without the same audio issues).

I thought Fox 23 had gotten through most of those commercial transition issues, or was it just the poor sap who pulled weekend duty not being up to speed on the switching process?

Has anyone noticed a drop in signal strength since Time Warner began packing more HD channels on their wire w/SDV?

My PRO-150FD w/CableCARD is reporting a 10% decline with its digital signal meter and nothing has changed from my end.

I was watching the Pro Bowl on Fox 23 yesterday (yes, a slow day indeed for TV viewing) and I was quite annoyed with the audio drops/stutters that would arise as the station would (apparently) switch to local control for commercials. When the (apparent) switch back was taking place in a timely fashion after getting back from commercial, I just ended up bailing and watching a recorded program (ironically, from Fox 23 without the same audio issues).

I thought Fox 23 had gotten through most of those commercial transition issues, or was it just the poor sap who pulled weekend duty not being up to speed on the switching process?I have been receiving a poorer than normal signal from Time Warner since their roll-out of additional HD channels w/SDV.

For the $122 per month I currently pay to Time Warner for digital TV service this is unacceptable.

I have a technician coming to the house, for the umteenth time, this week but I'm not very optimistic regarding the outcome. Most likely the cable tech will slap a meter on the line, report the signal is good & then leave.

I'm not sure if Time Warner even cares about my business but they have already lost my Internet & phone to Verizon FiOS ($69.99 per month for 2 years) and given the service I have received from TW during the past 10 years... digital TV won't be far behind.

Time Warner... the time to solidify your customer base is now... not after Verizon FiOS TV becomes available, by then it will be too late.

No, but TW is illegally implementing the Copy Protection flag on WXXA and WNYT (possibly the other locals as well). Law & Order, Criminal Intent is not set to CCI=0x00, nor was Family Guy on Sunday. Cannot transfer to another Tivo or TivoToGo. This is on an TivoHD with an M card. I first noticed on 2/10/08. I don't have recordings that go back further, so I don't know when this happened.

I gave up on the whole DRM issue with this region's "sole" Cable TV provider. I suppose when Verizon FiOS TV becomes available in our region, things will change.

More additions to TWC... (Thanks to AlbanyHDTV for the info.)

1892 Starz Comedy HD
1893 Starz Kids and Family HD
1894 Starz Edge HD

All 3 are using SDV & require subscription to the corresponding premium package.

...and these too...

803 HD PPV
1909 Team HD
1929 Game HD

The latter 2 are SDV.

Anyone else having trouble getting the VHF digitals? I haven't been able to pick up 13 or 23 3 of the last 4 days and the weather has been perfect for most of that time. Clear, sunny and no wind. On Friday when it was snowing I was getting 13 okay. I don't understand it. UHFs are same as usual.

More additions to TWC... (Thanks to AlbanyHDTV for the info.)

1892 Starz Comedy HD
1893 Starz Kids and Family HD
1894 Starz Edge HD

All 3 are using SDV & require subscription to the corresponding premium package.

...and again they announce their yearly price increases across the board as usual. Time Warner really needs them now since their subscribers are dropping like flies! They need to make up for it some how!!!

Anyone else having trouble getting the VHF digitals? I haven't been able to pick up 13 or 23 3 of the last 4 days and the weather has been perfect for most of that time. Clear, sunny and no wind. On Friday when it was snowing I was getting 13 okay. I don't understand it. UHFs are same as usual.I had no problem with 23.3 over the weekend. In December I couldn't get 10.1, but could get 10.3 - then someone said they did something and I checked again. Low and behold after 2 weeks without 10.1 it starts coming in again. You might want to call the stations to see if they're experimenting with something new.

For several days now I've been seeing a problem with WNYT OTA similar to the one WRGB used to have intermittently: pixelation every few seconds even though I'm getting a strong signal. I've seen it on 3 different receivers at 2 locations. The cable turnaround is better but not perfect. It also shows up on 13-2 and 13-3, but only in the inserts with motion. Maybe the nearly static parts of the picture are unaffected because they don't need to be refreshed as often. The cable turnaround of 13-2 doesn't show the pixelation, but when there is high motion in the insert the whole picture bobs up and down a few lines. Anyone else seeing this?

For several days now I've been seeing a problem with WNYT OTA similar to the one WRGB used to have intermittently: pixelation every few seconds even though I'm getting a strong signal. I've seen it on 3 different receivers at 2 locations. The cable turnaround is better but not perfect. It also shows up on 13-2 and 13-3, but only in the inserts with motion. Maybe the nearly static parts of the picture are unaffected because they don't need to be refreshed as often. The cable turnaround of 13-2 doesn't show the pixelation, but when there is high motion in the insert the whole picture bobs up and down a few lines. Anyone else seeing this?Me too! The HD channel and the SD channel on DirecTV have both had this problem. I noticed it first during the Biggest Loser on Tuesday, and then again last night. It would get all pixelated and blocky, and sometimes would freeze. Usually the audio would drop out at the same time. The SD feed seemed to do it less severely and less frequently than the HD feed.

I made a post about the problem, but when the moderator moved it he changed the title which made it somewhat useless:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1003812

Cool article about WRGB's HD News Operation...

http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/wrgb_kicks_off_newscasts_0311/

when is the time warner cable from Albany ny area going to release a patch that fixes the picture breaking up a freezing from their 8300hdc settop boxes?

For several days now I've been seeing a problem with WNYT OTA similar to the one WRGB used to have intermittently: pixelation every few seconds even though I'm getting a strong signal. I've seen it on 3 different receivers at 2 locations. The cable turnaround is better but not perfect. It also shows up on 13-2 and 13-3, but only in the inserts with motion. Maybe the nearly static parts of the picture are unaffected because they don't need to be refreshed as often. The cable turnaround of 13-2 doesn't show the pixelation, but when there is high motion in the insert the whole picture bobs up and down a few lines. Anyone else seeing this?

This occured Friday afternoon during Friends on WNYT OTA.
Occasional small blocks, audio drop out at different times.
Signal at 80%.

@Masterfx
Great article very interesting.
I had noticed the 14:9 on my analog set.
It sems the digital feed slips to 14:9 on occasion also.

when is the time warner cable from Albany ny area going to release a patch that fixes the picture breaking up a freezing from their 8300hdc settop boxes?
The breakup is not just with that box it occurs on all the set top boxes and I believe more of a problem with the channels themselves as I see the same issues with Dish, Direct and also on Comcast.

With my off air digital signals from Albany I have extreme breakup when snowmobiles use the trail in my back yard, just for a few moments, nothing much a bother. I don't know much about cable tv, but if the channels are off the air at the cable tower and the breakup occurs there, not much you can do about that.

The breakup is not just with that box it occurs on all the set top boxes and I believe more of a problem with the channels themselves as I see the same issues with Dish, Direct and also on Comcast.
I have DirecTV multifeed dish with a HR20 receiver. I subscibe to the $9.99 HD package with the 50 some-odd HD channels and I have never seen any breakup or freezing whatsoever. If I did you can bet I would be on the phone to DirecTv in a heartbeat. Seems to me the cable companies push too much junk equipment on their customers. I and my neighbors had Time Warner for less than a year and were so insulted by the excuses that en-masse we told them to remove all equipment from our homes. We (7 of us now) have had DirecTv and HughesNet for our services for over 3 years and no one has any complaints.
Like the cable industry says "ditch the cable and get a dish"

Does anyone know the EXACT day WRGB changes frequency assignment from 39 to 6 for HD? Is that going to occur in Feb. 2008 or earlier?

Also, why doesn't antennaweb show 6.2? Is it currently a substation of 39 or 6?

Does anyone know the EXACT day WRGB changes frequency assignment from 39 to 6 for HD? Is that going to occur in Feb. 2008 or earlier?Current plan is seconds after the analog transmitter is shut down for the last time at 11:59 PM on Feb 17, 2009.

New OTA channel noticed yesterday in the Albany area - 6.2 WCSN - Champion Sports Network.

New OTA channel noticed yesterday in the Albany area - 6.2 WCSN - Champion Sports Network. What frequency is that coming in on - 6 or 39?

WCSN is actually World Championship Sports Network and must somehow be affiliated with WRGB. It comes in as channel 6.2 which is broadcast on 39.

During basketball play offs WRGB has been running 2 feeds with a different game on each channel.
One HD, one SD.
When no games are on I've been getting the radar feed that only cable subscribers normally get.
Is this what you're talking about?

I'm not sure. Until the other day, I was not getting anything, and never had, on 6.2 - now it is on all the time as WCSN. I do not have cable, so I can only receive the digital OTA broadcasts.

During basketball play offs WRGB has been running 2 feeds with a different game on each channel.
One HD, one SD.
When no games are on I've been getting the radar feed that only cable subscribers normally get.
Is this what you're talking about?

The radar feed is 6.3

6.2 is this new network, WCSN.

Current plan is seconds after the analog transmitter is shut down for the last time at 11:59 PM on Feb 17, 2009.Thanks for the reply. Is WRGB transmitting anything HD on frequency 6 at this time (e.g. 6.2 / 6.3 )? Also, may I ask why was it decided to transmit HD on frequency 6 when it eliminates so many people with small indoor antennas? Is there some advantage of VHF 6 over UHF 39?

Thanks for the reply. Is WRGB transmitting anything HD on frequency 6 at this time (e.g. 6.2 / 6.3 )? Also, may I ask why was it decided to transmit HD on frequency 6 when it eliminates so many people with small indoor antennas? Is there some advantage of VHF 6 over UHF 39?

Frequency 6 is used for analog. There can be no digital on 6 until analog is turned off.

Channel 39 does poorly when there is a hill in the way, so any indoor antenna can't work there in the first place. Even outdoor antennas have issues with UHF signals when the terrain is blocked.

If channel 6 analog works right now with conventional rabbit ears, there is no reason to expect that digital 6 won't work with the same small antenna.

The higher the channel assignment or frequency, the more eneregy or electricity is required to cover the same distance.

The energy (and money) saved by moving from 39 to 6 is so huge, it's a no-brainer.

I have digital and analog exclusively and appreciate the addition of 6.2 and 3. I currently have 18 channels and pay nada. What a country. This swimming is awesome! Thank you.
Lurk

And trying to find a new channel when everyone realizes how awful low-VHF is will be even more of a no-brainer. Or having to invest in an even more powerful transmitter to overcome all of low-VHF's problems.

Enjoy WRGB while it lasts. Unless you're in the shadow of the tower, you'll not receive it on channel 6.

Oh, and don't try to watch it while there's a vacuum on in your house/residence. It'll kill the signal. As will blenders. And shredders. And most things with electric motors. Oh, and lightning strikes, even if you can't hear thunder or see lightning where you live.

I have first-hand experience with a low-VHF digital, one with more power than WRGB has a permit for (7.25 kW to WRGB's proposed 4.64 kW). I have encountered all of these things. Not fun. I would not wish a low-VHF digital on an enemy.

- Trip

Oh, and don't try to watch it while there's a vacuum on in your house/residence. It'll kill the signal. As will blenders. And shredders. And most things with electric motors. Oh, and lightning strikes, even if you can't hear thunder or see lightning where you live.

Thats just a characteristic of the digital frequency spectrum like redders mentioned previously, you might think his snowmobile story was silly but is known fact. I experience a digital "hiccup" every night that only last a couple seconds whenever I turn on/off my light while watching tv.

I found out about this issue years ago while playing with digital satellite signals, will it improve over time?...who knows but at the time being it is just a minimal annoyance.

I have basic $8 cable, I lost Fox, ABC, and NBC HD last night. I still get CBS and PBS. Are they on another channel now, cancelled from basic, or is there another problem?

I have basic $8 cable, I lost Fox, ABC, and NBC HD last night. I still get CBS and PBS. Are they on another channel now, cancelled from basic, or is there another problem?

Same for me, not sure what the issue is.

TWC moved the channels previously on QAM channel 105 to 102. Why? Don't know.

18-8(FOX), 18-10(ABC), and 18-13(NBC) moved from QAM channel 105 to QAM channel 102.

Try rescanning for QAM channel 102.

FYI: 18-6 (CBS) and 18-11(PBS) are on QAM channel 104.

Frequency 6 is used for analog. There can be no digital on 6 until analog is turned off. Thank you. I was hoping to test digital reception with my antenna BEFORE they switched. Guess I'll have to wait.

Channel 39 does poorly when there is a hill in the way, so any indoor antenna can't work there in the first place. Even outdoor antennas have issues with UHF signals when the terrain is blocked.My current indoor antenna, a Winegard Square Shooter mounted inside a shed picks up 39 beautifully right now.

If channel 6 analog works right now with conventional rabbit ears, there is no reason to expect that digital 6 won't work with the same small antenna.Unfortunately I only have a digital tuner, so I can't test the analog. Even if I could, Winegard estimates 50% better ability to pick up a digital signal than an analog with the squareshooter.

The higher the channel assignment or frequency, the more eneregy or electricity is required to cover the same distance.

The energy (and money) saved by moving from 39 to 6 is so huge, it's a no-brainer.Sound like accountants are going to save $50K a year in electricity and lose $250k in ad revenue. I, like a few of my neighbors who are OTA, are loathe to put up a 10ft antenna on the roof due to WAF and NAF. Not only that, but in yesterdays extremely high winds I suffered no ill effects, while my neighbor with DirectTV and seperate antenna for OTA mounted on his roof, had to come over to watch Nova because the winds were screwing up his signal.

AlbanyHDTV - What is the full channel? I rescanned my TV and it found the signals, however I have a home theater PC and its rescan isn't finding the stations. I would like to mannually type in the channel address, do you know what it is? I think the format is 102-XX-XX? Is it 102-18-13? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Dan

VHF 6 is such a strong signal around Albany that you actually get ingress on cable channel 6 with it, and we're bickering that they're going to continue using it in February?

I think we'll all just be fine, even with indoor antennas (or coat hangers!)

Sound like accountants are going to save $50K a year in electricity and lose $250k in ad revenue.

Hate to say it, but for those that are purely OTA (either because they are more frugal, or 50+ miles outside the city) PROBABLY aren't the same people who are spending money on the products they are advertising. Most OTA customers withing 45 miles of the tranmitter are probably DirecTV/Dish customers anyway and DirecTV just added HD locals.

Just sayin...

VHF 6 is such a strong signal around Albany that you actually get ingress on cable channel 6 with it, and we're bickering that they're going to continue using it in February?

I think we'll all just be fine, even with indoor antennas (or coat hangers!)

And in Chicago WBBM on 2 and WBBM-DT on 3 BOTH destroyed reception on the respective cable channels, and still nobody can get WBBM-DT to be stable. Some "lucky" people who can get it suffer drops and pixelization (not to mention problems with e-skip over the summer) on an almost constant basis. And that's with the big antennas required.

Go read parts of that thread sometime. WRGB is going to broadcast with about the same amount of power that WBBM-DT has (4.64 kW to WBBM's 4.4 kW).

WXXA got themselves moved from 4 to 7 for a reason. And it wasn't that 7 is a prettier-looking number.

And just because they aren't spending money on their products, that doesn't mean there's no impact on ratings.

- Trip

My current indoor antenna, a Winegard Square Shooter mounted inside a shed picks up 39 beautifully right now.


You don't have to wait to test it. The Square Shooter was not intended to work on Low Band VHF.

Go read parts of that thread sometime.

Nah, not sure I care that much.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

You don't have to wait to test it. The Square Shooter was not intended to work on Low Band VHF.I do have to wait to test it, because I still won't know if a giant antenna will work until they switch over to frequency 6 due to the instability of low channel VHF and digital transmission.

I know that the SquareShooter was not intended to pick up low band VHF at great distances because when I bought it their website says the range is only up to 15 miles for VHF 2-6. I'm 22 miles from the stations and I pick up FOX on VHF 7 with 90% signal strength, so I'm going to wait. No reason to pick up a new antenna now just to wait and find out it doesn't work.

At approximately 49 miles from the transmitter in the Heldebergs, analog 6 is my best analog reception. Oddly, digital 6 is also my most reliable digital channel. I say most reliable becausae none of them are completely reliable. The UHF digitals with the exception of 45 are reasonably reliable. 45 is almost never receivable. 13 digital and 23 digital are very susceptible to weather or atmospheric conditions. I can never tell what causes the problems though because sometimes can't receive them in good weather with no wind???? Sometimes can recieve them in bad weather with wind. sometimes not. Can't seem to figure it out. I am using two antennas, a Rat Shack combo and a AD XG-91 for UHF. There is no cable here and I have DISH so I am determined to get good OTA reception. I would expect that based on my current ability to get analog 6 I should get digital 6 after the changeover, yes?

Update: I rescanned my channels and they are back on the same channels. 18-6 18-8 18-10 18-11 18-13, plus a new sports station.

I don't claim to know alot about antennas, I am learning.
I get WRGB fine at my location.
When you look at coverage maps WRGB has the largest coverage area.
It has been stated that low VHF travels farther and easier around obstructions.
I spend a good part of the year in Indian Lake.
People there have giant, many many many feet long antennas, on there roofs, most with rotors.
The only purpose of these antennas is to pick up WRGB.
There are no other stations that come in, no matter what you do.
Before the dish came around VHS rentals in this town were huge.
If you really needed to watch something on a different channel you'd go to the bar to watch.

Frequency 6 is used for analog. There can be no digital on 6 until analog is turned off.

Channel 39 does poorly when there is a hill in the way, so any indoor antenna can't work there in the first place. Even outdoor antennas have issues with UHF signals when the terrain is blocked.

If channel 6 analog works right now with conventional rabbit ears, there is no reason to expect that digital 6 won't work with the same small antenna.

I'm up in the Utica area (Schuyler), just trying to get my antennas set back up after moving. Playing around with the channel master uhf 4228 antenna, 6 and 10 (26 and 39 DTV allocations) receivable. I tried my deep fringe vhf antenna last night -with a channel master CM7777 amp, nothing on the DTV allocations of channels 23 and 13 (DTV 7 and 12). I assume once WRGB moves back to ch. 6 digital, no more ch. 6 for me. I may just erect the uhf 4228 and forget about vhf altogether since only Albany stations (in the realm of my reception area) will use that band anyway. Utica and Syracuse all on uhf after February. So, I'm not in total agreement with the fact uhf does not propogate as far as vhf. Much smaller antennas too for uhf make a fringe uhf antenna more attractive (smaller!) than vhf in several respects.

I tried my deep fringe vhf antenna last night -with a channel master CM7777 amp, nothing on the DTV allocations of channels 23 and 13 (DTV 7 and 12).

The crowding of high band VHF eliminates many of it's inherent advantages.

You may have stumbled on adjacent channel interference. WNYT-DT is on channel 12. You have an analog LPTV station on channel 11, WPNY-LP, that is 3.7 miles from you. That station is predicted to be 63 db stronger than WNYT-DT at your location. WXXA-DT is on channel 7. Channel 7 is 174-180 mhz. The second harmonic of FM stations from 88-90 mhz fall into channel 7. WUNY, 3.7 miles away from you, is on 89.5 mhz. Your preamp should be overloaded by an FM station 3.7 miles away. Most FM traps are not effective on 89.5 because it's too close to channel 6.

Tower Guy,
I think a little more tinkering is in order, the FM band second harmonic on ch. 7 seems a little far fetched, but.... WUNY is directly off the back side of the antenna, so it is possible. On TVfool.com, it shows WXXA DT-7 to be the same strength as WTEN DT at -123.8 dBm, and 'TEN puts in quite a commanding signal here going by the signal level bar graph as shown on the TV, although one wouldn't know it by the coverage map in this area for WTEN. It was a little too cold out there last evening, and I had no help watching the tv or playing with the antenna on the side yard, I'm hoping this weekend will be more cooperative weather wise and maybe results will be more positive.

Back on the uhf side, interestingly no reception of WMHT on ch. 34. Of course all experimentation was done with the antenna at 5 ft. off the ground, but a clear shot eastward (no houses, nearby woods etc...)

My significant other is from Amsterdam, hence the desire for the Albany channels.

Back on the uhf side, interestingly no reception of WMHT on ch. 34. Of course all experimentation was done with the antenna at 5 ft. off the ground, but a clear shot eastward (no houses, nearby woods etc...)


WFXV on channel 33 is adjacent to WMHT-DT on 34. Tvfool predicts that WFXV is 72 db stronger than WMHT-DT at your location.

I tried to get WFSB-DT on channel 33 from Hartford at my house. I even built a three pole interdigital bandpass filter, but I had no luck with my 4228 atop my ham tower. I'm 9 miles from WMHT-DT's channel 34 transmitter. Overload from WMHT-DT also prevents me from getting WWNY-DT on channel 35.

I can get WKTV analog and digital, WUTR analog, and the analog low power repeaters in Burlington, NY, just outside of Cooperstown.

Good point on the adjacent analog channel 33/34 DT issue with WMHT here. Guess I'll have to wait on that one until next Feb. also. What got me excited and back into this, I moved back into the house I grew up in. Historically Albany analogs were usually a bit snowy (not counting any atmospheric enhancements). As a kid, Freddie Friehoffer (ch. 6) and the Popeye cartoons (ch.10) were my mainstays. Recently I decided to enter the world of HDTV and bought a Samsung LNT4069, my first digital tv and thought I'd see what OTA digitals I could receive as I was dismayed with the cable and local HD line up. Took my old 4228 into the living room with a 10 ft coax and hooked it up. I was quite surprised when WTEN DT locked in solid (of course the Utica digitals too) with the antenna propped on the floor against the wall of my 1 story ranch house! More fiddling around got mediocre results with Ch. 39 as well as a couple Syracuse stations. WKTV nor WUTR here broadcast HD, WTEN now fills that gap but I want to get a permanent installation. Being a ham, I have various tower pieces, masting etc... so I'll get something up. Still the poor vhf has me thinking and needs more experimentation - scheduling that for this weekend!

You sound like you've got quite the location if you can receive WWNY DT. That's a toughie for me as a 1400 ft hill 2 miles due north and directly in the same direction of WWNY kills it for me here. I'm at 780 ft I believe. I have better luck with Binghamton - at least I did with the analogs, didn't try digitals yet, as I'm on the south-west facing side of the Mohawk Valley. Scranton stations also would pop in and out. My house here is exactly one mile east of my old location at 601 Newport Road, very similar conditions all around, but that was even closer to the tower farm on Smith Hill.

I know if I look back through this forum I'll eventually find your antenna farm set up explained in detail somewhere.

I know if I look back through this forum I'll eventually find your antenna farm set up explained in detail somewhere.

It changes as I experiment. Right now it's a 4228 at 125' fed with 3/4" 75 ohm hardline. I have a HDP-269 preamp, but it overloads. I tried a UHF/VHF band splitter/joiner in front of the preamp to eliminate all VHF and that helps, but the preamp does not add any stations that I can't get without the preamp.

My goal was to get any CBS station that carries the Buffalo Bills. In Binghamton, WBNG is on channel 7, the same as WXXA-DT. In Syracuse WTVH is on channel 47. Instead I get a religious LPTV at 45 miles away in Glens Falls, even off the side of the antenna. I've seen WWNY-DT once when the conditions were favorable. I did get a Bills game from W29BJ, WFXV's analog translator in Otsego County, on a day that WXXA was carrying some other inane game.

I have watched Bills games on Binghamton's CBS analog 12 when Syracuse gets blacked out, now hoping their DT 7 will come in, WNYT would be off the side of the antenna and shouldn't be a problem. I tried to convince WWNY Watertown to set up a translator here on an unused translator a couple years back. They expressed interest until they found out Syracuse's CBS WTVH has rights to the Utica DMA. On a couple occasions since CBS has carried the Bills, I've caught a couple off of WRGB when Syracuse again was blacked out. But... I realize the Jets and Pats get more coverage on WRGB. Would the regulations prohibit a WRGB sub from carrying another game such as the Bills, when their main channel carries the Jets for example?

I would assume you have a pretty good shot to the north and west?

I would assume you have a pretty good shot to the north and west?

It's OK to the NW from the top of the tower. I see better from NNE to SSE. Here's my TVFool report.

Another rough weekend for 13 & 23 digital. No signal all weekend. It's back on now though. I have a full size Rat Shack rooftop currently for VHF. Would an upgraded model significantly improve my VHF signal? I get 2 out of ten bars consistently when I'm getting good signal on both 13 & 23 digital. The UHF digital channels are consistently at 8 out of 10 bars when I'm getting good signal, 4 - 6 bars in bad conditions and usually always viewable. And the UHFs bounce off the mountain behind me. Starting to get a little frustrated at the hit & miss on the VHF end of the digital spectrum.

Another rough weekend for 13 & 23 digital. No signal all weekend. It's back on now though. I have a full size Rat Shack rooftop currently for VHF. Would an upgraded model significantly improve my VHF signal? I get 2 out of ten bars consistently when I'm getting good signal on both 13 & 23 digital. The UHF digital channels are consistently at 8 out of 10 bars when I'm getting good signal, 4 - 6 bars in bad conditions and usually always viewable. And the UHFs bounce off the mountain behind me. Starting to get a little frustrated at the hit & miss on the VHF end of the digital spectrum.I can't answer your question, but if you do get a new antenna and can pull in VHF 6, tell us what you bought as I will buy the same one after they switch (assuming its not a 10 ft wide behemoth).

fair nuff

Friday night WTEN was fluctuating between 60% and 0%.
I didn't pay it much attention, thought maybe the rain was a factor.
Saturday night Harry Potter was on, the same thing was happening.
OTA being my only true HD source I wanted to watch.
The signal would fluctuate between 70% and 0%.
I get picture to 10% before drop outs.
At times the drop was so quick that the meter didn't even registar a loss.
Then a little while after the broom stick tournament, bam 100% signal no drops.
Looked gorgeous.
Anyone else experience this?

On a different note.
Have you seen the commercials on WNYA saying they can't broadcast a digital signal until Feb '09.
More like won't.
I was hoping they would get on board now as there signal is piss poor to unwatchable.
Oh well, :rolleyes:
--------------------------------------------
I'm editing my post as I have found new info.
This is cut and paste right from WNYA web site.

While federal law mandates that all full-power television stations must cease to broadcast in analog after 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009, low-power television broadcast stations (LPTV) such as WNYA on Channel 15, Class A television stations, television translator stations and television booster stations (low-power facilities) are not covered by the law. These stations may continue to broadcast in analog after the February 17, 2009, digital conversion deadline for full power television stations.

Viewers making the transition to receive digital stations who wish to continue watching low-power analog programming may need specific equipment.

Some converter boxes on the market will block low power analog programming after the transition. The converter boxes listed below have an "analog pass through" option that will allow you to continue watching analog programming when the box is turned off.

ECHOSTAR TR-40
DIGITAL STREAM DX8700
DIGITAL STREAM DSP7700T
Philco TB150HH9
Philco TB100HH9
Magnavox TB-100MG9
Some new wiring will also allow you to watch analog signals with a converter box that does not have the pass-through option. Click here to see how to connect a converter box without the pass-through option to your television set so you can receive analog and digital signals on your TV.
For more information, please download our Low Power Issue Guide in PDF format

So it sounds like WNYA isn't going digital.
I would really love to see the remastered Star Trek in HD too.
How long do they think they can last when you have to shutdown the STB or throw an A/B switch to watch one channel.
People are lazy the station just won't exist.
Any other info on this?

On a different note.
Have you seen the commercials on WNYA saying they can't broadcast a digital signal until Feb '09.
More like won't.No, more like can't. They are going to be digital on Ch 13. They can't turn on until Ch 13's analog transmissions cease (probably not earlier than 2/17/09).

So it sounds like WNYA isn't going digital.
I would really love to see the remastered Star Trek in HD too.
How long do they think they can last when you have to shutdown the STB or throw an A/B switch to watch one channel.
People are lazy the station just won't exist.
Any other info on this?

Last month, my source at WNYA told me they have an agreement in place to have their digital signal on Albany TWC... "by the 1st or second Yankee game..." This will allow WNYA to pass through the HD version of the Yankee games to those with TWC, prior to the February 2009 analog shutdown.

The first Yankee game on WNYA is scheduled for Friday, April 18th and the 2nd game on Friday, April 25th. Look for an announcement soon.

There is more info posted on the "other" website for HDTV news in Albany, NY.

Digital doesn't necessarily mean HD, and HD from network doesn't necessarily mean HD from any other source, as we saw when WXXA had the Yankees games. Have they said they plan to provide the games in HD over cable any time soon?

As for ST:TOS, I'd like to see that too but that would require the ability to record HD from a non-network source. If they can do that they'll be ahead of most of the other area stations. I might even start watching Stargate SG-1 if it's in HD.

Right now the only thing I'm watching on WNYA is Dead Like Me in very poor analog, just to see what changes they made from the original run on Showtime. I'm quite familiar with the originals because everyone I've shown an episode to wants to see the whole series.

Have they said they plan to provide the games in HD over cable any time soon?
Yes. They indicated their target was the first Yankee game on WNYA, which is this Friday, April 18th.

I am looking to switch from Dish to DirectTV. I cannot pick up OTA signals, and I'm extremely frustrated at Dish's inability to keep up with DirectTV with regard to local HD access. I have been told for months that it was coming.

In any case, my question is this: I know that I need a new reciever, but can I use my existing dish from Dish with Direct TV, or do I need to get a new dish from DirectTV?

I am looking to switch from Dish to DirectTV. I cannot pick up OTA signals, and I'm extremely frustrated at Dish's inability to keep up with DirectTV with regard to local HD access. I have been told for months that it was coming.

In any case, my question is this: I know that I need a new reciever, but can I use my existing dish from Dish with Direct TV, or do I need to get a new dish from DirectTV?

I believe the dishes are completely different.

The dish required to receive DirecTV HD signals is either the oval shaped sidecar or slimline.

DirecTV will provide and install the necessary dish when you sign up for service.

Late last night, TWC added 3 more HD channels:

1804 WNYA HD (just a black screen right now)
1843 Travel Channel HD
1872 ESPNEWS HD

Late last night, TWC added 3 more HD channels:

1804 WNYA HD (just a black screen right now)
1843 Travel Channel HD
1872 ESPNEWS HD

UPDATE: WNYA HD (mytv) is not a black screen anymore. It so weierd, liek really wierd, last night i was thinking in my head why doesn't time warner have travel channel hd when they have every otehr channel tahst liek it, haha and tehy added it.


I was excited to see some new hd channels but I really wish Time Warner would add USA HD, MTV HD, VH1 HD, SCIFI HD

Since I got serious about getting the OTA digital channels, I decided to get the Channel Master 4228. Once I had it aligned properly, I'm getting signals on most of the current digital channels in the range of 75-90%. Then, I read in this helpful forum that WRGB will switch back to low VHF channel six after the transition. Great, with the 4228 I get almost no analog signal on channel six, and I already tore down my old rat shack VHF antenna, and gave it away.

Then I remembered what my brother once said "When you switch from channel 6 ot 7 on the TV, you skip over the entire FM radio band". With that in mind, I grabbed the FM dipole loop off the stereo, went up on the roof and patched it into the connectors on the 4228. Checking the analog signal on channel six, it's now pretty good, depending which TV I look at it on. The digital tuner in the VCR brings it in almost perfect, it's about as close as analog can get to the digital quality. The one TV I have with a digital tuner brings it in pretty good, just some faint noise in the background.

The point of all this is, is that a good test of what kind of digital reception I'm going to get next year after the switch? If the analog signal comes in good on that station, do I at least have a chance to get the digital signal?

The only other option I can think of is to scarf an old VHF antenna that someone is looking to get rid of, rip out the elements that bring in channel six and patch them into the 4228. I'd rather not go back to a giant VHF antenna again, since I really like not having that ugly thing up there, if only one or two elements are really all I need.

Thanks for the input.

LGD

If you're now getting 6 analog reasonably well without adversely affecting the other channels then you should be all set, especially since it's "almost perfect" on one of your receivers. The newer digital tuners are quite tolerant of conditions that cause light to moderate snow or ghosts in analog.

You can't "rip out" the parts of a VHF antenna used for any particular channel, although if the FM dipole gives you good reception I suppose you could use the part of the old antenna that the wires are attached to as a low-gain antenna. Still wide, but not as long front to back. I don't recommend it.

Yes, channel 6 is just below the FM band; in fact, some FM radios can tune channel 6's audio.

Another issue to consider is that WNYA plans to start broadcasting in digital on channel 13 sometime after WNYT shuts down their analog. I don't know if they'll be on the community tower with the other stations, 13's present site on Bald Mountain or some other location. That might affect your antenna configuration.

Thanks for the input, Everything seems to come in clear at the moment, what will happen after the leaves are on the trees is another thing. At this point, any more antenna manipulation is out of the question, so an amp would be the only way to go.

If it comes down to it, I may experiment with an old VHF antenna, but don't look forward to all those trips up the ladder to the roof again. If the FM dipole holds up, I'll be satisified.

According to TVfool, WYNA should be on the same tower, or at least it's the same distance and heading as all the rest of the channels are, post transition. Right now I get a very snowy analog picture from them.

My biggest problem is channel 45 (43) I don't know if they are underpowering the transmitter right now, or are still working the bugs out, but I get a very low quality signal from them. Much worse than all the rest of the stations, even the ones that are supposedly less powerful. Heck, I even get channel 2 from Utica (WKTV) on a good day, but they are slightly off heading from the rest of the stations, and I really don't care about them. 45 though I wonder about, I might get 65% signal from them, but it's usually bouncing from 0% to 30% and doesn't lock. Hopefully that will improve.

LGD

Check back in this thread, I've also had unexplained issues with 45's signal.
It's been fine for quite a while now.
Knock wood.

Another rough weekend for 13 & 23 digital. No signal all weekend. It's back on now though. I have a full size Rat Shack rooftop currently for VHF. Would an upgraded model significantly improve my VHF signal? I get 2 out of ten bars consistently when I'm getting good signal on both 13 & 23 digital. The UHF digital channels are consistently at 8 out of 10 bars when I'm getting good signal, 4 - 6 bars in bad conditions and usually always viewable. And the UHFs bounce off the mountain behind me. Starting to get a little frustrated at the hit & miss on the VHF end of the digital spectrum.

I figured out the problem. During those incredibly windy days a few weeks back, my antenna moved about 15 degrees off target. I have a two piece mast and the top piece just turned a little. Once back in the right aim I was getting all digitals even 45 although 13 was rather weak at only 1 out of ten bars strength. I am still considering an upgrade to a Channel Master Crossfire 3671. I may even try a CM 4228 at some point for the UHF to see if it makes a difference.

Check back in this thread, I've also had unexplained issues with 45's signal.
It's been fine for quite a while now.
Knock wood.

Thanks for the HU, it sure is strange, they say they've done nothing, but the signal gets better and worse by itself. I suppose you could write it off to weather/atmosphere conditions and the fact that it is transmitting on that much higher a frequency. Though according to TVFool, it's transmitting at 575kw and WMHT is at 325 but I get a good signal from WMHT. I suppose the difference between channel 43 and 34 is significant though.

But another strange bit of information, channel 50 (ion) is even higher, transmitting less power and in a different direction from further away and that I get the strongest signal from almost all the time. That's line of sight, though which I suppose is a huge advantage, the rest of the channels are 1 edge, bummer.

The Luck of the draw I suppose. I'm not really too concerned about 45, about all I ever watch on it are Seinfeld reruns. My relatives down the road get it almost perfect with their old radio shack setup, so who knows?

LGD

I've never rotated the antenna to try and get 50 (ion).
It is only 12.4 miles but double edged.
I'd really like to know what WNGX-lp is at 5 miles LOS.
What does LP at the end mean?
Never mind.
LP=Low Power
I can't tune it.

Here's the wiki on WNGX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNGN-LP

Looks to be a christian station. I never bothered tuning it either, I don't think I get anything on that channel, even though I'm LOS, it's much further away and very low power. Doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

LGD

My experimentation with Albany DTV stations continues..... I think you're right about the FM interference I get here at 3.7 miles from a 6000 watt station at 89.5 mHz. I tried the 4228 without the preamp. Although I lose signal on WTEN DT26 that makes it pixelate, I gain WNYT DT on ch. 12, this is on my 4228! fyi, I also get a snowy 10 analog. Syracuse 9 analog comes in crystal clear as does LP 11 analog here in Utica. I can't get 9 clearly nor 11 hardly at all with the amp. The 11 transmitter is on the same hill as the 89.5 fm txmtr, at about 285 degrees. Albany is about 170 out from that at about 115 degrees.

So... it looks like the 89.5 is overloading the preamp (I thought it was a CM 7777 but it's a CM 0264). It does have a fm trap, which is enabled and a trimmer tuning cap, but it doesn't cut out the FM.

As another side note, once I saw WNYT-DT coming in on the 4228, I put up a small 5 element ch. 13 yagi that goes way back to when Utica had WKTV on ch. 13. No preamp with the small yagi and FM all over again. The 4228 without preamp is the only way the fm gets blocked.

So question, a wideband fm trap is in order. I'm not concerned about ch. 6 once it goes back to it's analog channel as that would be a tough one. Have you seen success with a fm trap? I'm also thinking of a preamp that amplifies uhf and not vhf and putting up either my 5 element yagi if that'll do the trick or one of the higher gain high band vhf antennas. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

So... it looks like the 89.5 is overloading the preamp (I thought it was a CM 7777 but it's a CM 0264). It does have a fm trap, which is enabled and a trimmer tuning cap, but it doesn't cut out the FM.

So question, a wideband fm trap is in order.

The typical FM trap in a preamp is not that effective on the low end of the FM band. You need a trap tuned specifically to 89.5. It needs to be installed between the antenna and preamp. Two companies who make them are in Syracuse.
http://www.cefilter.com/
http://www.microwavefilter.com/specialtraps.htm
I have heard that CE filter is very helpful in situations like yours.

$20 convertor boxes solve many problems (probably a $200 late model tuner would too)..
hey - you guys having problems - it is because you didn't wait till february 2009 to buy your hdtv - - - i bought mine a year ago - tried 5 different ones - bought the ones that worked the best (even sony wasn't so hot, probably because it was an older model, ones i bought were westinghouse newest model, worked best side by side with 4 other brands) - watched all year with dropouts etc. (sometimes chnnels worked, other times they didn't) - - - - february i hooked up an old TV with a meter at the dector on a splitter tuned to the digital stations and when the channels dropped out the signal was still strong - it isn't the signal streangth, i live in a valley (it is multipath) - - - - - for the last 2 months i have the problem solved - the coupon elegible convertor boxes have later technology than the 1 year old TVs - now when i can't pick up a channel i switch to the convertor box (hooked to a splitter and fed through the a/v inputs) - even when i am not picking up anything, the convertor box picks it up good - i only wish i had known..... now for $20 each i have my 3 TVs working again when a channel drops out - - - i bought the zenith since the zenith czn do an add scan or a single channel add (the insignia at best buy is also really a zenith box)...

what has happened to the channel 6 doppler radar that was available sometimes on 6-3 and other times on 39-3??????
i miss that - it was so much better than channel 13's doppler is...

What box exactly did you buy, model #?
Does it have EPG?
Tell us a bit more, how far out are you, ect.
It seems that you like your purchase and I soon will be looking to buy boxes for my old 4:3 sets.
Thanks.

6-3 doppler shows up occasionally, but is blocked from OTA reception.
It is available on cable.

Keep in mind the government sponsored "Coupon-Eligible Converter Boxes" are only capable of receiving the digital 480i standard signal and not the precious 720p/1080i high definition broadcast.

Breakstuff,
I think what you meant to say is that the CEB's will only output 480i due to lack of component or HDMI outputs.
Right?

>>What box exactly did you buy, model #?<<
the zenith dtt900 (same as the insignia from best buy)

>>It seems that you like your purchase and I soon will be looking to buy boxes <<
the coupons are limited, so dont wait too long

>>Tell us a bit more, how far out are you, ect.<<
i am in schoharie county between 2 mountains - analog i get ch 2 utica (my best) and 6,10, 13 17, 19, 23 & 45 (thirteen was worthless, all the other albany stations were snowy with 2-3 ghosts on the screen) i tried out a few HDTVs last april (sony, samsung and a few other high end ones were tried) i didn't try an LG but wish i did (didn't know who they were then, now i know they were "goldstar") but at that time the westinghouse (brand new model) beat them all for reception - i enjoyed 2-1, 6-1,2, 10-1,2,2, 13,1,2,3, 17-1,2,3 23-1,2, 45-1 for the last year, but with sometimes dropouts or not at all (but i still had my analog (snow and ghosts) as a backup to watch when the others weren't working - - i have 4 antennas and 2 mast mounted preamps plus 2 distrubution amps (loads of signal, but with lots of "multipath") i get HD utica 2 from the west facing antenna and the others from the northeast - i use 2 uhf antennas one on each end of the house - and i have vhf lowband 2-6 and vhf highband 7-13 (one on each end of the house) - with the analogs leaving in less than a year, i no longer will have my snowy, ghosty backups for when my perfect or nothing HDTV picture fails - - found out that LG makes the best chips (wish i had tried an LG HDTV, maybe the chip back then was the same last april in the TVs as the now january zenith convertor boxes and maybe i wouldn't have needed them) remember, these convertor boxes are a one shot thing, no one is going to re-design or update something made for old/obsolete TV add ons after spending money designing them the first time - - - - so i took a chance, tried and they work so much better than a one year old HDTV - the zenith/insignia boxes have an add scan which is very handy if you havr a rotor or 2 antennas like i do (you can also add a single channel) - they have enough different "zoom" options to fill the HDTV screen and are in a nice solid metal enclosure (althugh the remote seems kind of cheap) but for $20 they solved the multipath problems

>>Keep in mind the government sponsored "Coupon-Eligible Converter Boxes" are only capable of receiving the digital 480i standard signal <<
so what - when it is dropouts/nothing, a standard definition picture is better than nothing...
my only other option if i really need HDTV is to get (try it out before the "return time" is up) a digital tuner and hook it up through the HDMI plug, but the picture from the box is really quite good and watchable, plus i do get the HDTV good sometmes where the TV will decode it, just use the boxex when the TV won't.
(cable ends way down the road and a mountain & trees are in the way for satellite)

Breakstuff,
I think what you meant to say is that the CEB's will only output 480i due to lack of component or HDMI outputs.
Right?

Correct!

Ken thanks,
hahaha,
You have quite the setup.
But if you are over coming triple analog ghosts with this box that says alot.
I will look into it.

i am in schoharie county between 2 mountains - analog i get ch 2 utica (my best) and 6,10, 13 17, 19, 23 & 45 (thirteen was worthless, all the other albany stations were snowy with 2-3 ghosts on the screen)
Ken, are you saying the Zenith has a pass-thru for analog channels?

If not, what makes this Zenith worth twice as much as the Maganovox on sale at Wal-Mart? Thanks for the info.

>>Ken, are you saying the Zenith has a pass-thru for analog channels?<<

no pass through - i get the analog and digital through the F59/coax connector on the back of the TV - - when the digital are getting crappy (blocky, cutouts or nothing) i switch to the zenith box and watch digital TV through the A/V inputs (i used to use the analogs as my backup when i wanted to see something that wasn't coming in at the time, now i just use the box as my "backup" - - you can just use a splitter and an "a/b switch) if you need "pass thru".

>>If not, what makes this Zenith worth twice as much as the Maganovox on sale at Wal-Mart? Thanks for the info.<<

it isn't twice - the magnavox is $50 at walmart (thier slogan is "watch out for falling prices") probably because they buy so many.
the zenith is $60 a difference of $10 (the $40 coupon makes the difference)

read some threads on the convertor boxes and come to your own conclusion.
one reasom may be the LG chip used in the zenith/insignia boxes - supposedly LG leads in multipath rejection, the 6th generation LG chip is supposed to be even better (but i don't think they will ever spend money to redesign a box around it since all the TVs that these boxes are made for are "dying").

the zenith/insignia boxes can also do an "add scan" which many of the other boxes (or TVs) won't do. (have to check the features of the one you are interested in)

I have a Westinghouse HDTV and I just moved to Albany. I used to live in Oswego and I got HD channels for CBS, ABC, and NBC. Now here in Albany I cannot get HD for any of these stations.

Any ideas?

I have a Westinghouse HDTV and I just moved to Albany. I used to live in Oswego and I got HD channels for CBS, ABC, and NBC. Now here in Albany I cannot get HD for any of these stations.

Any ideas?You didn't give us much to go on. Antenna or cable? If antenna, what kind? Inside or out? Did you aim it toward the tower? You can find the direction and distance at www.antennaweb.org. All 3 of those are on the same tower in the Helderbergs along with Fox, CW and PBS, and you should be able to receive all of them easily in Albany unless you have special circumstances that block their signals. You can use an analog channel (6, 10, 17, 23 or 45) to help aim the antenna as they're all fairly close together. Just don't use 13; it's a different direction. When you get them reasonably well do a rescan for digital and they should come in.

I have a Westinghouse HDTV and I just moved to Albany. I used to live in Oswego and I got HD channels for CBS, ABC, and NBC. Now here in Albany I cannot get HD for any of these stations.

Any ideas?
Did you do a new channel scan after you moved (these arent like the old TVs where you just flip through the channels and see what is there)?

maybe the moving company dropped your TV while putting it in or taking it out of the house or truck and screwed something up???????

>>I cannot get HD for any of these stations<<
do you get any others (fox,cw,pbs,pax, etc.)?

Just a heads up on the Zenith dtt900.
There have been issues with the left audio channel.
Manufacture dates of April 2008 are supposed to have the problem solved.
New box Zenith dtt901 is coming out in June, should be the same box with analog passthru.

Hi, My wife and I are moving to the Albany area and found out that Mid Hudson Cable is our cable company. Apparently we are in an area that got upgraded and they now offer HDTV. Does anyone else have any experience with them? We are getting cable and internet -since State Telephone only offers DSL at 512K download.

Hi, My wife and I are moving to the Albany area and found out that Mid Hudson Cable is our cable company.

Mid Hudson cable offers both HD and cable modems.

My suggestion is DirecTV now that they offer HD locals if you're at all serious about HD. How much is Mid-Hudson for internet-only?

Verizon FiOS, now that's the ticket for Internet & phone service.

If only FiOS TV was available in Upstate NY, then it would be Adiós Time Warner Cable.

Verizon FiOS, now that's the ticket for Internet & phone service.

If only FiOS TV was available in Upstate NY, then it would be Adiós Time Warner Cable.

I agree, but judging by their lack of progress here, it will be at least 2 more years before we see it.

Sigh.

I'll probably end up switching to DTV again.

My suggestion is DirecTV now that they offer HD locals if you're at all serious about HD. How much is Mid-Hudson for internet-only?

I was thinking about Directv because Mid Hudson Cable does not offer MLB EI. Do you need to have cable with internet or can you just get internet?

From Mid Hudson's website:

Pricing
Residential Prices:
Upstream is 256K
Downstream is 5 Meg
*$49.95 per month

*Price for modem is the rate with Basic Cable

Oohhh how I will miss Cablevision. Optimum Online boost gets me 30 megs download for the same price mid hudson is charging. If only Verizon would buy out State Telephone Company.....

I have an LG LST-3410A, a digital receiver that uses the analog form of Gemstar TV Guide On Screen (TVGOS). Currently it gets good data from WRGB analog (if allowed to search, it will also lock onto WMHT analog but never gets usable data there). I've read that CBS affiliates will be carrying the digital form of TVGOS and that some already are. Can anyone confirm that WRGB-DT (or any other local station) will provide TVGOS? Is it doing so already? If not, when is it expected to start?

Many people with receivers that depend on analog TVGOS hope that there will be a way to keep them working after the digital transition, and one possibility is that some of the CECB converters will convert the digital bitstream to the analog format so that the output could be fed to a TVGOS receiver such as the 3410A. It has been reported that the Echostar DTVPal does this, but they're not available yet. I tested a Zenith DTT900 but found no VBI data on any channel except for line 21 (closed captions).

I've read that CBS affiliates will be carrying the digital form of TVGOS and that some already are. Can anyone confirm that WRGB-DT (or any other local station) will provide TVGOS? Is it doing so already? If not, when is it expected to start?WRGB-DT has been carrying TVGOS for several months now.

WRGB-DT has been carrying TVGOS for several months now.Thank you! That means the Zenith box does not do the translation. Probably most don't. I'll have to wait for the DTVPal, which reportedly will use TVGOS itself, to see if it also puts it out as analog.

Thank you! That means the Zenith box does not do the translation. Probably most don't. I'll have to wait for the DTVPal, which reportedly will use TVGOS itself, to see if it also puts it out as analog.Strange, that LG model is listed on the TVGOS support page: http://www.tvguideonscreen.com/support/

Strange, that LG model is listed on the TVGOS support page: http://www.tvguideonscreen.com/support/Not sure I know what you mean. Nothing strange about the 3410A being listed; it uses TVGOS to list programs and schedule recordings. But I've read through the FAQs that page links to and saw nothing about what to do when the source of that guide data goes away, which it will do next February. The 3410A cannot use the digital form of TVGOS directly. That's why I and others hope that at least one of the CECBs now or soon-to-be available will convert the digital form to the analog form, which we can then feed to the LG (or similar receiver) so that it can continue to receive the guide.

Not sure I know what you mean. Nothing strange about the 3410A being listed; it uses TVGOS to list programs and schedule recordings. But I've read through the FAQs that page links to and saw nothing about what to do when the source of that guide data goes away, which it will do next February. The 3410A cannot use the digital form of TVGOS directly. That's why I and others hope that at least one of the CECBs now or soon-to-be available will convert the digital form to the analog form, which we can then feed to the LG (or similar receiver) so that it can continue to receive the guide.Apologies. I keep forgetting about this old analog nonsense. I jumped to the conclusion that devices listed on the TVGOS page meant they supported TVGOS over digital streams.

Just curious.
The 3410A has a digital tuner in it.
What have you done thus far to schedule recording DTV?

Just curious.
The 3410A has a digital tuner in it.
What have you done thus far to schedule recording DTV?I rarely watch and hardly ever record analog. It's primarily a digital DVR. When the guide is working, as it is lately, I use it to schedule recordings. When it isn't there's an option to program it by date/time/channel, which I can use after the shutdown, but I'd rather keep the guide if there's a way to do it.

Although most of the guide entries are for analog channels by default, any of them can be changed to their digital equivalents. The local channel listings are incomplete, although there are a lot of channels listed that aren't available OTA or on cable, such as WNET, WGBH, WGGB and WWLP. WMHT-HD (PBS-HD) isn't listed, but WGBY-HD is and they carry PBS-HD at night, so I tell the guide I get WGBY-HD on 17-1 and the listings are right some of the time.

The one listing I can't switch to digital is WRGB, my guide channel. The guide channel must be analog and, due to a boneheaded design decision, that channel must be enabled and assigned to the WRGB listing or I can't get guide updates. I've tried assigning channel 6 to a listing for a channel I don't get, but it knows somehow and refuses to get the guide. I can still tune 6-1 and record it, but I can't use the guide to do it.

Although most of the guide entries are for analog channels by default, any of them can be changed to their digital equivalents.
This what I was asking.
The one you really need won't remap to an unused station.
:mad:

I noticed Wheel & Jeopardy in HiDef tonight. When is the ABC nightly news going Hidef? How about channel 10 news? About time don't you think?

Young is broke from what I understand. Don't expect local news in HD on WTEN anytime soon.

I heard September for ABC Nightly News.

- Trip

Interesting. It seems everyone has the full court press on abaout getting the word out about the digital transition in Feb. Seems like the transition to actual high def is not getting the same full court press.

No transition to HD is required. Only a transition to digital. If all the stations transmitted 480i and no other subchannels, they'd be following the letter of the law.

- Trip

TIME WARNER CABLE JUST ADDED 4 NEW HD CHANNELS

1834 - Disney Channel HD
1886 - Showtime West HD (Requires Showtime Subscription)
1887 - Showtime 2 HD (Requires Showtime Subscription)
1888 - TMC HD (Requires The Movie Channel Subscription)

We still dont have MGM HD even though they made a deal with MGM already, and I think we got screwed on ABC family, and we only got disney. Thanks Time Warner. *Rolls Eyes*

I'm a Time Warner cable subscriber (HD w/ DVR). Lately when I'm channel surfing the 1800's, I come across channels that display a screen that says "can not be displayed" (or something like that). It seems to be happening more often and with more channels (HD channels). Is this a known issue... Maybe something to do with SDV and not enough bandwidth? I called TW tech support and the person I spoke to had me reset my DVR (didn't fix the problem), then wanted a technician come out to take a look. I said no to that... Figured it would be a waste of my time.

Also, I keep seeing those TW commercials where they mention their "fiber-optic" network. What's up with that? I don't have fiber optic cable...I have coax cable! Does TW have fiber optic cable? I'm quessing no, but they are leading us to believe they do (must be illegal if they don't??). If they did have fiber optic cable, I probably wouldn't have the issues with my HD channels. Sorry for the rant.

Lately when I'm channel surfing the 1800's, I come across channels that display a screen that says "can not be displayed" (or something like that). It seems to be happening more often and with more channels (HD channels).

I have been having issues with the Starz HD channels recently. Heavy pixelation or no picture at all.

Does TW have fiber optic cable? I'm quessing no, but they are leading us to believe they do (must be illegal if they don't??). If they did have fiber optic cable, I probably wouldn't have the issues with my HD channels. Sorry for the rant.
The fiber runs from the TWC office to the node in your neighborhood. Coax runs from the node to your residence.

Verizon FIOS brings the fiber all the way to your house.

BTW, on my way into work this morning, I saw three large Verizon line rigging trucks pulling 3 large spools of fiber driving through Guilderland. Hopefully, Verizon will start offering TV service in the area soon. It would be great to have competition for TWC besides installing a dish on your house.

I have been having issues with the Starz HD channels recently. Heavy pixelation or no picture at all.


The fiber runs from the TWC office to the node in your neighborhood. Coax runs from the node to your residence.

Verizon FIOS brings the fiber all the way to your house.

BTW, on my way into work this morning, I saw three large Verizon line rigging trucks pulling 3 large spools of fiber driving through Guilderland. Hopefully, Verizon will start offering TV service in the area soon. It would be great to have competition for TWC besides installing a dish on your house.

Its prob for the Fios Internet, and not Fios tv, the Verizon fiosTv hub is to far away from albany, its all the way in buffalo, and the one thats being constructed in nyc is just for nyc because it has so many people to service. Dont expect FiosTV here anytime soon,, even though it is much needed.

The past few days nothing is showing on YesHD - anyone know whats going on?
(I am on Time Warner Cable)

Thanks

Its prob for the Fios Internet, and not Fios tv, the Verizon fiosTv hub is to far away from albany, its all the way in buffalo, and the one thats being constructed in nyc is just for nyc because it has so many people to service. Dont expect FiosTV here anytime soon,, even though it is much needed.

What about Boston? That is much closer than Buffalo.

DISH Network announced it has added Albany HD Locals

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1666640#post1666640

What about Boston? That is much closer than Buffalo.The FiOS TV build out for Upstate NY begins in Buffalo and ends in Albany.

"the FiOS build-out has been reined in by the slow pace of gaining regulatory approval to sell video services (http://www.bnet.com/2407-13071_23-91849.html)"

The FiOS TV build out for Upstate NY begins in Buffalo and ends in Albany.

"the FiOS build-out has been reined in by the slow pace of gaining regulatory approval to sell video services (http://www.bnet.com/2407-13071_23-91849.html)"

Interesting, but I have to believe that Verizon will concentrate on large population areas, which only makes sense for them. Ironically our small town is divided between Verizon (formerly New England Telephone) and Fairpoint Communications (formerly Taconic Telephone) with Verizon owning less than half the phone lines in town. People with Verizon are stuck with dial-up intenet and suffer not only slow service, but also frequent dropped connections, while people with Fairpoint communications have access to DSL, which works pretty reliably. The folks with Verizon have had several meetings with Verizon officials regarding the situation and Verizon refuses to make upgrades due to the size of the customer base. This is not surprising considering that the cable company refuses to run cable into our town for the same reason. That is why you see dishes on almost every house here. Coincidentally wireless service may also be coming soon as a new cell tower has been put up in Stephentown, NY about 6 miles away. We are all hoping anyway.:D

The folks with Verizon have had several meetings with Verizon officials regarding the situation and Verizon refuses to make upgrades due to the size of the customer base. This is not surprising considering that the cable company refuses to run cable into our town for the same reason. That is why you see dishes on almost every house here. Coincidentally wireless service may also be coming soon as a new cell tower has been put up in Stephentown, NY about 6 miles away. We are all hoping anyway.:DI can't blame Verizon, who is spending millions of dollars to deploy FiOS technology and its infrastructure, for targeting areas that will provide the greatest ROI. I've had Time Warner Cable Broadband (good), Verizon DSL (better) and now Verizon FiOS (best) Internet service.

DISH Network announced it has added Albany HD Locals

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1666640#post1666640


Only WNYT and WTEN though.

Lame.

What is WCWN doing with the sound.
Normally when a show goes from 5.1 to a commercial, it goes to stereo.
The stereo is always so loud I have to mute the system.
The past couple weeks WCWN has been coming through in 5.1 no matter if it's primetime, afternoon reruns, commercials, everything.
I like this as the commercials are at a normal volume.

Are they just sending a 5.1 signal with copys of the fronts on the surrounds?
Is this what all stations will be going to, to solve the volume issue?

Only WNYT and WTEN though.

Lame.

Agreed. There is a discussion at satelliteguys regarding Freedom, which owns CBS 6, and Newport TV, which owns Fox 23 and how they own several stations in several cities and have not reached agreement with DISH to allow rebroadcast. Apparently there are about thirty stations being held up in cities where DISH is carrying HD locals.

Discussion here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-hd-discussions/142699-hd-locals-not-likely-come-dish-soon.html.

Doesn't look good for us DISH customers in fringe areas.:mad:

What is WCWN doing with the sound...
The past couple weeks WCWN has been coming through in 5.1 no matter if it's primetime, afternoon reruns, commercials, everything....
Are they just sending a 5.1 signal with copys of the fronts on the surrounds?Audio is being processed with a DSP box that passes native 5.1, but seamlessly crossfades to a 5.1 upmix when it detects 2 channel material. The process is similar to Dolby ProLogic in that sum information goes to the center channel and
difference information gets routed to the surround channels.
Normally when a show goes from 5.1 to a commercial, it goes to stereo.
The stereo is always so loud I have to mute the system...
I like this as the commercials are at a normal volume.
...Is this what all stations will be going to, to solve the volume issue?Solving a volume issue isn't the real intention here as there's no reason that diffent formats can't have the same loudness.

The benefit for the listener is that it avoids the brief muting that many receivers do at the transition to/from 2.0 to 5.1. In the plant it allows us to not be concerned about the format of the audio since we no longer have to switch the Dolby Digital encoder between 2.0 and 5.1 and there will never be issues of missing dialog if the audio doesn't match the encoding format.

Thanks for explaining that.
It is working great, I can't wait for the other stations to catch on.
:)

Anyone notice HD being choppy lately? Discovery channel (1836) seems to be the worst.

Question: When you're TV is doing auto program for Digital/Analog, whats the difference between the three options (STD, HRC, and IRC)? Is it quality? I noticed I couldnt pick up any HD channels besides WRGB and WMHT when I did STD but when I tried HRC it gave me all my local channels.

STD, HRC, and IRC are different channel allocations. So basically, the carriers for audio and video are shifted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonically-related_carriers

- Trip

Has anyone else noticed problems with reception of 13-1? I haven't been ab le to get it for over a month now. Getting 23-1 ok though. Any thoughts?

Has anyone else noticed problems with reception of 13-1? I haven't been ab le to get it for over a month now. Getting 23-1 ok though. Any thoughts?From Hancock MA you might have trouble with any of the Albany stations, depending on how clear a shot you have. I'm only about 10 miles away from the transmitters and get them all easily with rabbit ears for VHF and a loop for UHF. I just checked and found 13-1's SNR to be in the midrange of all of them, about 30dB. That's well above what's needed.

13-1 is on real channel 12 and 23-1 is on 7. The others are UHF for now (6-1 will switch to real channel 6 after the analog shutdown). Can you get the UHF channels? What kind of antenna(s) are you using and what has been your experience with analog reception from Albany?

From Hancock MA you might have trouble with any of the Albany stations, depending on how clear a shot you have. I'm only about 10 miles away from the transmitters and get them all easily with rabbit ears for VHF and a loop for UHF. I just checked and found 13-1's SNR to be in the midrange of all of them, about 30dB. That's well above what's needed.

13-1 is on real channel 12 and 23-1 is on 7. The others are UHF for now (6-1 will switch to real channel 6 after the analog shutdown). Can you get the UHF channels? What kind of antenna(s) are you using and what has been your experience with analog reception from Albany?


Don't have line of sight, looking into trees. I am about 49 miles from transmitter. I am using a Rat Shack 120 inch that came with the house, probably 30 ish years old for VHF and an Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF combined through a CM 7777 preamp. For the last year and a half or so I have gotten 13-1,2,3 and 23-1,2, most of the time reasonably well, 23 more reliably. I would of course lose them when the wind blows or it rains or it's sunny or it just doesn't feel like coming in. Lately though 13 has been nearly non existant. For UHF I am getting 6, 10 & 17 almost all of the time unless weather is really bad. I have not been able to get 45 reliably at all in all of that time. I am considering a new VHF antenna (CM 3671) and possibly a new UHF antenna (CM4228). I need OTA because no cable here and D* & E* do not provide all digital channels. I currently have E*. Thanks for the reply though. I would welcome any suggestions. Getting frustrated.

Springfield, MA locals launch in HD on DIRECTV in October and using zip code 01237 at DIRECTV shows you'd get Albany HD locals with them as well right now.

Dish just added Albany HD locals I believe as well. You might want to look again if it's been a while.

Don't have line of sight, looking into trees. I am about 49 miles from transmitter. I am using a Rat Shack 120 inch that came with the house, probably 30 ish years old for VHF and an Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF combined through a CM 7777 preamp.If the downlead is as old as the antenna, you'll want to replace that with some good quality RG-6. Just redoing the connections could make a world of difference. From all I've read, the CM 7777 preamp is an excellent choice.

I am considering a new VHF antenna (CM 3671) and possibly a new UHF antenna (CM4228).The 3671 is a deep-fringe VHF/UHF combo, so you might want to try the UHF part before you spring for the 4228.

Eventually we will have 4 VHF digital channels: WRGB on 6, WXXA on 7, WNYT on 12 and WNYA on 13. WNYA is planning to transmit from their current ch. 15 analog site, near all the other towers in the Helderbergs. WNYT's analog 13 is the only Albany station not broadcasting from there (it's a lot closer to you) so your reception of them is no indication of how well you'll be able to get WNYA.

I did replace the downlead. You should have seen it. I am also splitting to 5 tvs so I will be looking into a CM distribution amp also.

Dish carries 2 of the 4 main locals in HD, 10 & 13. Apparently negotiations have stalled on 6 & 23 and 17 & 45 are not a consideration.

As far as my current reception goes, I get 6 analog nearly perfect, 10 analog fair, 13 analog not at all (different tower location), 15 analog fair, 17 analog fair, 23 analog fair, 45 analog not so fair, 6, 10, 17, 23 digital pretty reliable, 13 digital used to be good, now hardly ever, 45 digital came in a few times over the last year and a half.

01237 is technically the zipcode for Hancock, but we use 01267, which is the zip for Williamstown because that's how we get our mail delivered (one horse town, no post office), but there's really no difference because they're both Albany DMA. I would hate to switch to DirecTV after 11 years with Dish and am hoping they can settle with WRGB and WXXA. My main object in posting was to see if something was going on at WNYT that has caused me to lose their signal here (about 1 mile northwest of Jiminy Peak Ski Resort). I was getting it pretty good for a long time and now can't seem to get it at all. Maybe the new CM antenna will bring it in. I also lament not getting 45 digital because I would like to watch Mets games in HD. The only way for me to get Mets games in HD now would be to switch to DirecTV and subscribe to EI package. Frankly I love the Mets, but that package is WAY overpriced.

Thanks for the suggestions.

They took away USA HD and all those Olympic hd channels when the Olympic ended, ugh frustrating.

But Apparently Toon Disney HD and ABC family HD are coming very soon to TWC Albany

I noticed this past week that channel WKTV-2 from Utica (UHF29) has added a sub-channel, looks to be CW network. Funny how I can receive 2 from Utica at over 80 miles away but can't get squat on 45 from the same tower as the rest of the local channels that I get fine.

Not that I watch CW all that often, but if they have Seinfeld weeknights like 45 does, that would be cool, which is about the only thing I watch on that channel.

LD

WKTV Utica on Ch. 29 and it's CW sub are on, but have had pixelation and audio sync issues. A statement on their website explains it all. Utica is impatiently awaiting Time Warner to add it so NBC HD will be available without having to go OTA from Albany or Syracuse. The Utica DMA doesn't allow a neighboring city's NBC affiliate to be carried on the Utica cable system.

Speaking of NBC, Davird_Jr mentions WNYT cutting out. FYI, I'm about 65 miles northwest of WNYT's HD transmitter and have not noticed any problems in the last month. WNYT is reliable here, hawever as a point of interest, WXXA HD rarely comes in (same transmitter location, both Vhf high band signals).

WKTV Utica on Ch. 29 and it's CW sub are on, but have had pixelation and audio sync issues. A statement on their website explains it all. Utica is impatiently awaiting Time Warner to add it so NBC HD will be available without having to go OTA from Albany or Syracuse. The Utica DMA doesn't allow a neighboring city's NBC affiliate to be carried on the Utica cable system.

Speaking of NBC, Davird_Jr mentions WNYT cutting out. FYI, I'm about 65 miles northwest of WNYT's HD transmitter and have not noticed any problems in the last month. WNYT is reliable here, hawever as a point of interest, WXXA HD rarely comes in (same transmitter location, both Vhf high band signals).

Isn't that funny. I'm about 48.5 miles due east of the tower. WXXA usually reliable. WNYT used to be reasonable at least, but lately forget about it. I assumed it has something to do with all the mountains in the way. OTA or SAT here, no cable.:(

recently i had problems with tiling and robotic audio, which i assumed was a time warner cable box or outside line issue in the area west of albany new york (cobleskill). here's the story, hoping it'll shed some light on similar situations anyone out there may have. after a visit from an extremely knowledgeable, courteous and straightforward field technician (Gerry), most of my questions have been answered. first, the issue of the recent problem (almost two weeks ago) of the many missing HD channels (1800's) was a problematic software upgrade that needed to be rolled back (hence the auto-rebooting of the cable boxand reappearance of the channels the next day. second, the tiling (boxing) and robotic audio that was sporadic though enough to be quite annoying was definitely in the main line (fortuitously, my across the street neighbor was having the same problem and was his next call). Gerry the tech reviewed all house wiring inside and out, tweaked the box to make sure all measurements were within specs and, when he went to the outside pole feeding the two houses with reported problems, waited for the sporadic issue to manifest itself, thus allowing him to provide the necessary info to the line crew that would follow.
last night, i watched tv into the wee hours, and the line crew must have already done some work because things were pretty much back to normal with only a split second of tiling over more than a six hour span.
on a separate note, if there are readers of this board who have viera linked panasonic gear of recent vintage (like blu-ray home theater and a pz85 tv) and you want to know how to get it all to work with hdmi and digital audio cabling and all controlled by the time warner remote, i'd be happy to post instructions.

New additions today on TW-Albany:

1833 ABC Family HD
1871 ESPNU HD

Isn't that funny. I'm about 48.5 miles due east of the tower. WXXA usually reliable. WNYT used to be reasonable at least, but lately forget about it. I assumed it has something to do with all the mountains in the way. OTA or SAT here, no cable.:(

Short answer 13 has been fine in the Berkshires, 23 has been choppy for me. I am just south of you. As is the nature of mountains and valleys, our experiences have been different. The only channel that I can get reliably, is 55, 13 (though not tonight), 17, followed by 23 which has been choppy the last day or so. I have had a number of installers out and spent nearly $1000 to get WRGB in HD (it and 10 are the two channels we watch the most) and still can not get it. I can only get 6 when I point my antenna to the south and get it on a bounce off the mountains and then it is a crap shoot. 19 is ok, 45, 15 (which is 3 miles from me), 28, and 38 are all no goes. WKTV from Utica comes in many nights and WYOU and WBRE from northern PA had incredible signal strength tonight. I can not get the Springfield channels at all. We have tried yagi and bay antennas as wells a standard channel master

I have invested a lot of money in antennas and had profession installers come out to basically get the same HD I can get from Dish - NBC and ABC. PBS and their digital substations and ION and IONLife are nice additions, but less important than FOX-HD CBS-HD and CW-HD. The couple of times that I was able to pick up 6 HD, it was absolutely stunning quality. Unfortunately, those of us in the Berkshire lack LOS and have too many multipath problems to make OTA a reliable solution for getting HD.

Short answer 13 has been fine in the Berkshires, 23 has been choppy for me. I am just south of you. As is the nature of mountains and valleys, our experiences have been different. The only channel that I can get reliably, is 55, 13 (though not tonight), 17, followed by 23 which has been choppy the last day or so. I have had a number of installers out and spent nearly $1000 to get WRGB in HD (it and 10 are the two channels we watch the most) and still can not get it. I can only get 6 when I point my antenna to the south and get it on a bounce off the mountains and then it is a crap shoot. 19 is ok, 45, 15 (which is 3 miles from me), 28, and 38 are all no goes. WKTV from Utica comes in many nights and WYOU and WBRE from northern PA had incredible signal strength tonight. I can not get the Springfield channels at all. We have tried yagi and bay antennas as wells a standard channel master

I have invested a lot of money in antennas and had profession installers come out to basically get the same HD I can get from Dish - NBC and ABC. PBS and their digital substations and ION and IONLife are nice additions, but less important than FOX-HD CBS-HD and CW-HD. The couple of times that I was able to pick up 6 HD, it was absolutely stunning quality. Unfortunately, those of us in the Berkshire lack LOS and have too many multipath problems to make OTA a reliable solution for getting HD.

:eek: Thought I had it bad. Sounds like your experience is much worse than mine. 6 HD is actually my best channel, but like you I get it on a bounce from the mountain (Brodie) directly behind me northeastish. I get 10 HD and 17 HD off the same bounce all pretty well, but like you CW is a no go. I also have considered throwing money at this with new antennas. Curious, are you using seperate VHF & UHF antennas joined with a preamp from Channel Master. We did this and it improved things dramatically. Had 13 until a couple months ago. Friday morning it was on during 6 AM news time, but off again by the time I left for work at 8.

Thanks for the reply it really made me think before I am considering spending more money. I wonder if we will just have to bite the bullet and go to DirecTV? Who knows if they will keep the digital channels after the shutoff in Feb. We are at the mercy of the Sats and the FCC. Oh well.

Funny, I get 6 bouncing off Bousquet's. Thank God for ski areas or no one in the Berkshires would ever get a signal :) I am currently using a crossfire combined UHF and VHF with a rotor. On good days, I can tweak and get spectacular pictures on most channels. I like the digital subs. The problem is like you, I never know what will come in on any particular day.

When you mentioned problems with 23, did you mean 23.2. I just noticed audio dropouts on 23.2 but no problems on 23.1

Also channel 19 went out for me last night and I still can not get even a faint signal. Does any one know if it is down?

I am very happy with Dish except for the 6 and 23 issue; I also get ethnic programming from them.

wkomorow:
How is your reception of WRGB analog (ch. 6)? If it's not too bad (not too snowy, ghosts aren't too severe) then you might not have a problem getting their digital feed after they switch it to ch. 6 in February.

I was watching the game Thursday night(OTA, HD) and saw some strange things.
When they would do close ups, especially from ground level, the main player would be clear, but certian parts of the screen, mostly backgrounds, would blur.
Not really pixelate but get fuzzy.
This happend on most replays also.
1) Did anyone else see this?
2) Could this be a 1080i issue because of the fast motion?
I understand this is why 10 and 23 chose 720p?
3) Did NBC have issues on there end?

Short answer 13 has been fine in the Berkshires, 23 has been choppy for me. I am just south of you. As is the nature of mountains and valleys, our experiences have been different. The only channel that I can get reliably, is 55, 13 (though not tonight), 17, followed by 23 which has been choppy the last day or so. I have had a number of installers out and spent nearly $1000 to get WRGB in HD (it and 10 are the two channels we watch the most) and still can not get it. I can only get 6 when I point my antenna to the south and get it on a bounce off the mountains and then it is a crap shoot. 19 is ok, 45, 15 (which is 3 miles from me), 28, and 38 are all no goes. WKTV from Utica comes in many nights and WYOU and WBRE from northern PA had incredible signal strength tonight. I can not get the Springfield channels at all. We have tried yagi and bay antennas as wells a standard channel master

I have invested a lot of money in antennas and had profession installers come out to basically get the same HD I can get from Dish - NBC and ABC. PBS and their digital substations and ION and IONLife are nice additions, but less important than FOX-HD CBS-HD and CW-HD. The couple of times that I was able to pick up 6 HD, it was absolutely stunning quality. Unfortunately, those of us in the Berkshire lack LOS and have too many multipath problems to make OTA a reliable solution for getting HD.
There's alot of good info on the AVS antenna topic thread, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=381623&goto=newpost
but if you've had the pro's come in you've probably seen it.

Funny, I get 6 bouncing off Bousquet's. Thank God for ski areas or no one in the Berkshires would ever get a signal :) I am currently using a crossfire combined UHF and VHF with a rotor. On good days, I can tweak and get spectacular pictures on most channels. I like the digital subs. The problem is like you, I never know what will come in on any particular day.

When you mentioned problems with 23, did you mean 23.2. I just noticed audio dropouts on 23.2 but no problems on 23.1

Also channel 19 went out for me last night and I still can not get even a faint signal. Does any one know if it is down?

I am very happy with Dish except for the 6 and 23 issue; I also get ethnic programming from them.

I have been with DISH for 11 yrs and am overall pretty satisfied and not really interested in changing to DirecTV either. I am waiting to pull the trigger on HD with them until Eastern Arc is available to existing customers and hopefully then 6 & 23 will be on line. Don't want to put up a second dish to get HD. I really wish they would get the CW45 in HD because I am a long suffering Mets fan (emphasis on the suffering:D). Have not been able to get that OTA at all really.

I also cannot get 19 OTA because the tower is on Greylock I believe and I do not have line of sight because of Brodie. Don't really need it though as 10 digital is one of my more reliable channels. Both 6 & 10 HD are usually extremely reliable unless weather is really bad or its dramatically windy or something like that.

I am curious who you used to work on your antenna problems.

I have not noticed a problem with 23.2 as I don't usually watch that. I like a lot of what is on the PBS sub channels though. I usually find that if I can't get the main channel, I don't get the subs either.

I am now wondering when the local CBS,FOX,CW and NBC will upgrade their ability to do syndication in HD now that DR. Phil, Ellen and Oprah are in HD? Even WRGB who does the local news in HD does not have the ability to do syndication or time shifted shows in HD.

I am now wondering when the local CBS,FOX,CW and NBC will upgrade their ability to do syndication in HD now that DR. Phil, Ellen and Oprah are in HD? Even WRGB who does the local news in HD does not have the ability to do syndication or time shifted shows in HD.We have the capability. We have been running Two and a Half Men in HD on both WRGB and WCWN since the end of July. We have also time-shifted WCWN's primetime and Sunday afternoon lineup several times when we were running Mets baseball. Dr. Phil has been in HD since about 3:30 pm. Ellen will follow at 4pm in HD. (The first half of Dr. Phil was not in HD due to the syndicator blowing the scheduled feed several times and we could only manage to get some of today's show in HD.)

I was watching the game Thursday night(OTA, HD) and saw some strange things.
When they would do close ups, especially from ground level, the main player would be clear, but certian parts of the screen, mostly backgrounds, would blur.
Not really pixelate but get fuzzy.
This happend on most replays also.
1) Did anyone else see this?
2) Could this be a 1080i issue because of the fast motion?
I understand this is why 10 and 23 chose 720p?
3) Did NBC have issues on there end?

I don't have hi def, so I don't know first hand, but what you're talking about sounds like limited depth of field (focus) for the camera taking the pictures. I have heard that hi def cameras, because of the small digital sensor, do the same thing as still digital cameras with small sensors, the effective "crop factor" of the sensor being small essentially makes your normal lens a telephoto. In order to get wide shots, you have to go with an even wider lens than normal. It seems what you are describing is the fact that when the camera operator at the field zooms into a close up on a player, the length of the lens gets longer, which in most cases reduces depth of field. What that means that at any given focus setting, less of the total depth of the image field is in focus. It's probably never been a problem up until now and hi def TV where you can actually see it happening.

That's my theory anyway, so, nothing is wrong with your picture, please do not adjust your set, lol. You're just seeing the limitations of the camera because your TV is too good. I don't know about why the other channels only do 720, might be that it costs less?

If you want to see more explanation, then here's a good link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field if you scroll down and look at the picture of the cat, is that pretty much what you see when it happens on TV?

LD

Thank you for your reply it is welcomed when you take the time to listen to you viewers.

wkomorow:
How is your reception of WRGB analog (ch. 6)? If it's not too bad (not too snowy, ghosts aren't too severe) then you might not have a problem getting their digital feed after they switch it to ch. 6 in February.

I hooked up the TV antenna directly to the NTSC tuner and I get a sparkle effect on WRGB when I point it to the west. Not sure what they will mean when it goes digital. It would have been nice to have things in place for the new tv season though.

I have been with DISH for 11 yrs and am overall pretty satisfied and not really interested in changing to DirecTV either. I am waiting to pull the trigger on HD with them until Eastern Arc is available to existing customers and hopefully then 6 & 23 will be on line. Don't want to put up a second dish to get HD. I really wish they would get the CW45 in HD because I am a long suffering Mets fan (emphasis on the suffering:D). Have not been able to get that OTA at all really.

I also cannot get 19 OTA because the tower is on Greylock I believe and I do not have line of sight because of Brodie. Don't really need it though as 10 digital is one of my more reliable channels. Both 6 & 10 HD are usually extremely reliable unless weather is really bad or its dramatically windy or something like that.

I am curious who you used to work on your antenna problems.

I have not noticed a problem with 23.2 as I don't usually watch that. I like a lot of what is on the PBS sub channels though. I usually find that if I can't get the main channel, I don't get the subs either.

I sent you a PM about the installers.

19 is line of sight and can peak between 90--100% until 2 days ago when I lost the signal completely. They may have a transmitter problem. For me, the VHF stations are more reliable with the exception of 55 - if I adjust my antenna just so 55 just about peaks my meter. I may have the wrong antenna, but with no signal off 19 last night, my reception of 10 and 45 were very good. I even got 6 HD to come in pointed in the right direction for a while. 45 made a 2 minute appearance. WKTV was very strong. Maybe 19 is just scrambling my signals by overwhelming my antenna. It is northeast of me, while of course the albany stations are west north west.

Especially frustrating is that most of the newer antennas are UHF and we will have at least 3 VHF stations (4 if you count WWLP in Springfield) and I think 5 if you count WKTV (not positive though). My real frustration is that I like the digital subchannels, but what I really want is WRGB in HD. CBS has really been the HD leader and WRGB is the only station that broadcasts local news in HD. ABC and CBS are really the only broadcast stations I watch. Retro and VTV, IonLife, and PBS Create have interesting programs, but I could live without them, unlike the CBS comedies.

Especially frustrating is that most of the newer antennas are UHF and we will have at least 3 VHF stations (4 if you count WWLP in Springfield) and I think 5 if you count WKTV (not positive though).

WKTV is staying where they are on ch. 29 uhf after the transition date.

I'm in the Utica area and decided to take my vhf lo/hi band antenna stored in the barn and put it up. I kind of chalked up losing WRGB after the transition, but them broadcasting their news in HD got me hooked, so up went the vhf antenna before it got cold out. A little snowy analog, but hopefully that'll be enough signal to give me a usable digital signal after changing to the digital transmitter on Feb. 17th.

Other than that, dxing should be fun during the summer e-skip on the low vhf band - especially with no local channels as an impedement.

Other than that, dxing should be fun during the summer e-skip on the low vhf band - especially with no local channels as an impedement.

Well, unless you're talking about Canadian stations, it won't be nearly as much fun as it used to be. There'll be very few usable targets.

Most stations are abandoning low-VHF as fast as they can, really I can't blame them, as I'm suffering with one as we speak.

As things stand now, when all is said and done there will be two full-powered stations in the entire US on channel 4. Six stations on channel 2. Seven on channel 3 (one is my local PBS, which is blowing a bunch of money on a new non-directional antenna for their digital signal and will move to UHF if/when that doesn't help anything). Fourteen on channel 5, nine on channel 6.

- Trip

I agree with you as far as vhf. I have issues even with the digital vhf hi band channels I get as far as any interference. Running any electical motor type item in the house like a mixer, hedge clippers etc... or even certain cars going past the house will cause pixelation. UHF is not a problem.

I'm well aware there'll be much less channels actually broadcasting on the vhf lo band in the US, but the Carribbean and perhaps Mexico are now within reach on analog.

I have a question as I'm unfamiliar with "OTA."

How many more HD channels could I possibly pick up if I bought an antenna and scanned for channels? I am currently in my dorm room at college and I use the regular RF cable or whatever and then I have the TV search for channels in which case it picks up the local channels in HD (Fox, ABC, CBS, Channel 15, etc). Would I be able to get more channels in HD than this if I bought an atenna for OTA and then searched for channels? I'm actually kind of hoping there's a way I can get ESPN in HD but I think thats impossible without a box.

Also, I don't know how legal this is but I have Time Warner Digital at home but since I left to come back on campus, the box that I was using is currently not in use. I wouldnt be able to bring that box to my dorm room and get the same result as I did at home would I? My campus does use TW after all. I guess I'm in desperation in trying to get ESPN HD in time for monday nights game of my Cowboys :)

Romo2Owens:
You didn't specify where you are, but I gather you have access to Albany (or nearby) Time Warner Cable. That typically has all of the subchannels of the local digital transmissions except for WNYT's radar channel. They also have WNYA (MNT) in HD, even though that station can't broadcast digital until after the analog shutdown in February because they'll be using ch. 13, currently in use by WNYT.

Go to www.antennaweb.org and/or www.tvfool.com and plug in your location (Zip+4 is usually easiest and you can adjust the map to fine-tune where you really are) to find out how far and in what direction the transmitters are. A window facing the right direction is ideal (all the majors are on the same tower in the Helderbergs) but you might get results looking through the building or taking a bounce off a nearby building or hill.

TWC does cut the bitrate a bit compared to broadcast (except for WCWN, which it actually gives a slightly higher bitrate) but I really can't see any difference in A-B comparisons.

Without a cable box or CableCARD rented from TWC (the latter requires a receiver made to accept it) you can only get the digital channels TWC does not encrypt, which includes the locals they carry, a government channel, local sports and some ad channels. ESPN is not available by broadcast and it's encrypted on cable.

It's barely possible that you could get WYPX (ch. 50) from Amsterdam. They run 4 SD subchannels but no HD. They're not on digital cable (not unencrypted, anyway) except that the Worship channel that TWC recently added may be from them.

Can anyone verify for me that WCDC is not transmitting? I can not get any signals from it. I wrote WTEN but have not heard back.

Romo2Owens:
You didn't specify where you are, but I gather you have access to Albany (or nearby) Time Warner Cable. That typically has all of the subchannels of the local digital transmissions except for WNYT's radar channel. They also have WNYA (MNT) in HD, even though that station can't broadcast digital until after the analog shutdown in February because they'll be using ch. 13, currently in use by WNYT.

Go to www.antennaweb.org and/or www.tvfool.com and plug in your location (Zip+4 is usually easiest and you can adjust the map to fine-tune where you really are) to find out how far and in what direction the transmitters are. A window facing the right direction is ideal (all the majors are on the same tower in the Helderbergs) but you might get results looking through the building or taking a bounce off a nearby building or hill.

TWC does cut the bitrate a bit compared to broadcast (except for WCWN, which it actually gives a slightly higher bitrate) but I really can't see any difference in A-B comparisons.

Without a cable box or CableCARD rented from TWC (the latter requires a receiver made to accept it) you can only get the digital channels TWC does not encrypt, which includes the locals they carry, a government channel, local sports and some ad channels. ESPN is not available by broadcast and it's encrypted on cable.

It's barely possible that you could get WYPX (ch. 50) from Amsterdam. They run 4 SD subchannels but no HD. They're not on digital cable (not unencrypted, anyway) except that the Worship channel that TWC recently added may be from them.

Yeah I'm in Albany NY. I live on campus at the college of saint rose.

I got a question though: I have Digital Cable at home. Like I said in my previous post, the box that was in use isnt being used anymore since I took the TV with me to my room. If I brought the box with me to my dorm room, would I still get digital cable seeing as how my school uses time warner and the digital cable is still currently installed in my home, or no?

Also, could you guys tell me more about this cable card? How does it work? How do I know if my TV supports it? What do I have to purchase in order for the cable card to work?

Can anyone verify for me that WCDC is not transmitting? I can not get any signals from it. I wrote WTEN but have not heard back.I haven't seen it myself since at least Sunday.

I have Digital Cable at home. Like I said in my previous post, the box that was in use isnt being used anymore since I took the TV with me to my room. If I brought the box with me to my dorm room, would I still get digital cable seeing as how my school uses time warner and the digital cable is still currently installed in my home, or no?

If your box has a current sub then I would think it would work anywhere within the TWC network,
I know of people moving cable modems to different locations without any problems so results may be the same with the TWC digital TV boxes. Can't hurt to try, just don't say anything because I'm sure its not allowed and listed somewhere in the TWC End User License Agreement.

Romo,
First I assume you have an HD tv and that home is in the albany area.
If your cable box from "home" is still paid up you should be able to hook it up and get HD.
All the programing is always there it's just a matter of unscrambling it.
Go ahead an Hook up the box all it will cost you is your time.

Also, could you guys tell me more about this cable card? How does it work? How do I know if my TV supports it? What do I have to purchase in order for the cable card to work?
You would have to look in your TV sets manual to see if it is cablecard ready.
If it is you would still have to pay for the card monthly just like the cable box.
So if your going that route you could just rent a box from TW.
With the card you elimanate a remote as you would change channels with the TV remote.

Thanks for the replies guys. I will go home tomorrow and get my box.

BTW, I never knew TW allowed you to rent boxes from them. Or did you just mean the cable card?

Thanks for the replies guys. I will go home tomorrow and get my box.

BTW, I never knew TW allowed you to rent boxes from them. Or did you just mean the cable card?
The cable card costs $1.99 a month as compared to $7 a month for the cable box plus another $1 or so a month for the remote.

Cable cards can not receive channels sent by TWC with Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology. Over half of the available HD channels are sent via SDV and all future additions will be SDV. A list of all the channels sent by Albany TWC via SDV are posted on the other Albany HD website.

So it works! Wow everyone at my job was telling me it wasnt going to work since they control the digital signal or something from where they are and its on at my house but wouldn't be on at my campus. I don't care how it worked but I am happy! now I can watch ESPN in HD :)

P.S. How legal is this? lol I mean I'm still paying for 3 boxes at my house so its not like I'm stealing a box. Im just using it at another location

Is anyone else having regular audio drop outs on 23.2? 23.1 has not been a problem. My understanding is they are contained within the same wrapper, so it should not be a reception problem but an encoding issue at WXXA. Is this true?

Yes, I believe you are correct.
I've had isues with the sub channels and not the main or visa versa.
If you are getting any part of the channel it's not the reception.

Is there a place or have people here done a comparison of TWC vs. Direct TV vs. Dish in the Albany area.

Last night I was trying to watch Football Night in America and it could cut out from time to time going completely black. I called TWC they told me to reset the box.. (15mins. ) then try again. This doesn't seem to make a difference. Later on in the night a could watch 1813 without any issues. I am at the point where I am considering moving to Direct TV. I am just curious as if Direct TV or Dish looks any better?

Thanks,

-Chris

chrisfromalbany:
First you need to hear from someone who was watching it OTA (I wasn't). It may well have been a network or station problem, in which case all of the ways to receive it would have been affected equally.

Well I talked to someone who lived in Albany, I live in Schenectady, and they also have TWC and they had no issue at the time. Also the SD channel worked fine just HD channel didn't work.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Basically a number of sporting events that I wanted to watch in HD and haven't been able to because of bad or no reception. This same thing happen about three weeks ago again on a Sunday night. That time I didn't call anyone. Before that the US Open Tennis final was moved from 1806 to 1812. The 1812 channel didn't come in at all. Called TWC they again said to reset the box and that didn't work. Then they wanted to send someone out to the house. I didn't do that because I would need to take off work and I am not sure what that will do. Depending on the time all these channels will work in HD. Just they aren't stable in my area. Is Albany any better?

When I was experiencing these issues with watching Football I checked other HD channels and many HD channels weren't coming in or were going black at times.

Question I am asking is do DISH or Direct TV have this outages and generally for Albany/Schenectady are they better choice to go with. Even when TWC it isn't experiences moments where the picture goes black there are in normal Football watching, moments of pixelation. I am wondering if that is more or less the same with Direct or Dish..

chrisfromalbany:
Sounds like a signal strength issue to me. I suggest you call TWC and set up a visit from a service tech so they can check your line. I had similar issues and they installed an amplifier (at no additional cost). I've heard of instances where they replaced the service line from the street to the house, too.

I have invested a lot of money in antennas and had profession installers come out ......... Unfortunately, those of us in the Berkshire lack LOS and have too many multipath problems to make OTA a reliable solution for getting HD.how old is your TV? - i tried a lot of TVs side by side before i settled on one (westinghouse 26" was better than: sony, sylvania, sanyo, and the 32" westinghouse) so i bought 2 of them (westinghouse 26") 1 1/2 years ago - - - i have them hooked to two antennas w/ amplifiers aimed at different reflections from 2 different mountains and an "a-b switch" since combining the antennas only cause more multipath than you already have - - - but i did have dropouts and nights when a channel didn't work - - - - - - - - then along came the coupons and boxes - i tried the zenith boxes and when i have trouble, i just switch to the box - it is not HD output from the box but it is working better than the TV - i can even hook both antennas together through a splitter/combiner at the same time and still get a picture with the zenith box (but then i would have to use the box all the time and never watch HD since combining the antennas makes too much multipath for the TV to handle, so i still use the a-b switch so i can see HD when reception conditions are good) - the zenith box handles multipath so much better than any TV that i tried 1 year earlier - - - - if you are having reception problems get a TV with a newer chip or get a zenith convertor box and use that when you are having channel trouble on the TV...

I am using a 722 Echostar box. I have heard that different tuners have different performances. I also read in one antenna description that it was optimized with newer tuners to reject multipaths. Right now the VHF channels are watchable. 10 comes and goes but has been reliable for the past week. 55, and 17 have been ok. 45 is a no go, 6 is a no go. It is possible after the transition when most of the channels move to the VHF range. I notice that many people have yagi antennas, I have a crossfire; one of my installer has suggested the Extremeantenna 8 bay UHF. I am also thinking of splitting my VHF and UHF antenna. Its all one big experiment.

I am using a 722 Echostar box. I have heard that different tuners have different performances. I also read in one antenna description that it was optimized with newer tuners to reject multipaths....................I am also thinking of splitting my VHF and UHF antenna. Its all one big experiment.i am in a valley 30 miles from albany TV - the LG chip is supposed to be the best, the zenith convertor boxes have it in them (the echostar doesn't) - - - my TVs which were brand new models (that is why they worked better than the others when i compared them, even better than the larger size of the same brand) were made in april (first of the model #), the boxes were made in december (only 8 months later) - i got 3 zenith boxes (one for each TV) and they work when the TVs tuner won't - - if i had waited and bought the latest LG TV i would not need the boxes (but i did get to enjoy the TVs for awhile already).

i don't see how the antenna can work with the tuner as you state to reduce multipaths??? they each do it in a different way - the antenna does it by being directional and the tuner does it by picking out the data from the right reflection (look at the boxes that antennas come in where they say digital all over them - any old TV antenna from the 1930s is digital too!) - the signal going into the antenna doesn't know the difference...).

i have a uhf yagi on the back of the house for everything UHF except channel 2/29? (is it 29 from utica?) and a high band vhf yagi for 13 & 23/7 - both are aimed southwest at a mountain (albany is northeast of me) i have an amplifier with seperate vhf & uhf inputs (built in "combiner") - after the amplifier it is split to 3 a/b switches.
on the front of the house i have an 8 bay bowtie style antenna aimed towards utica (northeast) for channel 2 (uhf 29 i think) it also picks up everything else uhf from albany - many times when the other antenna isn't working good for some stations i switch to this one and can get them - i also have a low band vhf yagi on the front waiting for channel 6 digital, both are hooked up to another amplifier with seperate vhf & uhf inputs going to a splitter and then to the 3 a/b switches...
by switching between the a & b i have been able to watch good TV most of the time except for some dropouts - but by using the boxes i can use either antenna pretty much all the time for any channel and no dropouts (except for utica, that has to come through the bowtie antennas on the fron of the house) - i am better off with the right antenna for the right channel since the box output is not digital, but for channel surfing it is nice not having to switch antennas for each channel.

you should not "split" your uhf & vhf - you should combine them through a uhf/vhf combiner to isolate them from each other since each will pick up some signal from both bands (uhf & vhf) if you just use a splitter it will still pass both bands from both antennas (my amplifiers have the "combiner" built in).

i did some experimenting - i hooked a meter up to the detector stage on the (old analog) TV to measure the voltage/signal strength (the meter on the boxes/dtv tuners does not measure signal strength, it measures "quality") and saw that all my signals were very strong, even when the DTVs dropped out the signal continued to be strong so i knew my real problem was multipath, not signal streangth...
(many people "overamplify" and by doing that they are helping to bring the multipath signals up to the same level as the signal the tv needs to pick out of the jumble (it is a jumble, on analog TV i have 3 or more "ghosts" walking across the screen) so it is one big experiment - try a zenith box and you may be surprised - i was - - - - by the way, there is a 900 and a 901 zenith box, the 901 passes analog TV which you dont need and you will probably lose some signal because of the pass thru feature (but signal streangth is usually not the culprit anyway, so if the 901 is all you can get, try it!).

Hello,
I'm using the 8300HD DVR with TW cable. I've had this cable box for about 4 years now. Is there a newer, higher capacity hard drive, box out... or is there a new one on the horizon? My DVR is already at 70% full with all these new shows starting. Or, is there a way to hook up a portable hard drive to my DVR?
Thanks

Hello,
I'm using the 8300HD DVR with TW cable. I've had this cable box for about 4 years now. Is there a newer, higher capacity hard drive, box out... or is there a new one on the horizon? My DVR is already at 70% full with all these new shows starting. Or, is there a way to hook up a portable hard drive to my DVR?
Thanks
There's an entire thread on this in the HDTV Recorders section:
8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=516559&highlight=8300+esata)

...or you can get a TiVo HD DVR and put a 2.5TB drive in it (http://mfslive.org/tivo_hd.htm) to store 312 hours of HD. I'd wait until the SDV Tuning Adapter is released, though.

i am in a valley 30 miles from albany TV - the LG chip is supposed to be the best, the zenith convertor boxes have it in them (the echostar doesn't) - - - my TVs which were brand new models (that is why they worked better than the others when i compared them, even better than the larger size of the same brand) were made in april (first of the model #), the boxes were made in december (only 8 months later) - i got 3 zenith boxes (one for each TV) and they work when the TVs tuner won't - - if i had waited and bought the latest LG TV i would not need the boxes (but i did get to enjoy the TVs for awhile already).

i don't see how the antenna can work with the tuner as you state to reduce multipaths??? they each do it in a different way - the antenna does it by being directional and the tuner does it by picking out the data from the right reflection (look at the boxes that antennas come in where they say digital all over them - any old TV antenna from the 1930s is digital too!) - the signal going into the antenna doesn't know the difference...).

i have a uhf yagi on the back of the house for everything UHF except channel 2/29? (is it 29 from utica?) and a high band vhf yagi for 13 & 23/7 - both are aimed southwest at a mountain (albany is northeast of me) i have an amplifier with seperate vhf & uhf inputs (built in "combiner") - after the amplifier it is split to 3 a/b switches.
on the front of the house i have an 8 bay bowtie style antenna aimed towards utica (northeast) for channel 2 (uhf 29 i think) it also picks up everything else uhf from albany - many times when the other antenna isn't working good for some stations i switch to this one and can get them - i also have a low band vhf yagi on the front waiting for channel 6 digital, both are hooked up to another amplifier with seperate vhf & uhf inputs going to a splitter and then to the 3 a/b switches...
by switching between the a & b i have been able to watch good TV most of the time except for some dropouts - but by using the boxes i can use either antenna pretty much all the time for any channel and no dropouts (except for utica, that has to come through the bowtie antennas on the fron of the house) - i am better off with the right antenna for the right channel since the box output is not digital, but for channel surfing it is nice not having to switch antennas for each channel.

you should not "split" your uhf & vhf - you should combine them through a uhf/vhf combiner to isolate them from each other since each will pick up some signal from both bands (uhf & vhf) if you just use a splitter it will still pass both bands from both antennas (my amplifiers have the "combiner" built in).

i did some experimenting - i hooked a meter up to the detector stage on the (old analog) TV to measure the voltage/signal strength (the meter on the boxes/dtv tuners does not measure signal strength, it measures "quality") and saw that all my signals were very strong, even when the DTVs dropped out the signal continued to be strong so i knew my real problem was multipath, not signal streangth...
(many people "overamplify" and by doing that they are helping to bring the multipath signals up to the same level as the signal the tv needs to pick out of the jumble (it is a jumble, on analog TV i have 3 or more "ghosts" walking across the screen) so it is one big experiment - try a zenith box and you may be surprised - i was - - - - by the way, there is a 900 and a 901 zenith box, the 901 passes analog TV which you dont need and you will probably lose some signal because of the pass thru feature (but signal streangth is usually not the culprit anyway, so if the 901 is all you can get, try it!).

Ken,
Do the converter boxes you describe produce a HD output or only convert to SD? wkmorrow and I both have Dish network and get SD from them. It is HD that we're interested in. We are in the range of 50ish miles from the transmitter over mountainous terrain and have anything but line of sight. I don't believe the problem is too much signal. I am using a CM7777 preamp and am getting around 70% signal on UHF channels (digital 6, 10, 17) with a Antenna Direct yagi. On digital 13 & 23 I get 1 sometimes 2 out of ten bars using a Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna. Digital 45 never comes in here. Ever. These are combined in the CM7777. When the preamp is turned off I get 0 signal so I don't think the problem is too much signal. I am considering an 8 bay bowtie for UHF instead of the yagi as well.

Also, how can Albany and Utica both be to your northeast and you being 30 miles from Albany TV?

We experimented with including and not-including the 7777 preamp. The only channel I can get without a preamp is channel 19. Greylock is the highest mountain around here, so there is LOS. It is funny that Dave is only a few miles north from me or so, but because the terrain here is varied, our experiences are directly the opposite. What he gets best, I can not, what I get best, he can not. I think the problems are too low signal strength or loss and multipath issues from our terrain. If I could find an antenna with minimum loss and a very narrow focus, I might be able to get a more reliable signal.

Dave, Dish is supposed to be coming out with a new 722 that does not have an OTA tuner but two expansion slots for the optional tuners. The disadvantage is the whole kit will probably be more expensive then the current 722. The advantage is that the tuners will be customer installable and upgradeable as technology changes and the tuners improve and you will be able to record two OTA events. Think the old Dish 6000 HD receivers with the optional OTA tuner.

Interesting.

I was unable to get channel 13 today at noon. I did several resets to my receivers, etc. Then I did a rescan. Behold 12 comes up. It looks like they are not including the remap information in the PSIP datastream.

edit: it is now fixed. A question what happens is a receiver receives a channel without the remap information on the same channel to which it is remapped. For example WNYA will be on real channel 13 virtual 51, if they did not include the virtual channel in the PSIP data would it override WNYT real 12 virtual 13? Would tuners know what to do?

I've been having a lot of trouble with freezing and sputtering audio as well as pixelating and break-up of video on TWC lately. I have the 8300 HD-DVR which I've rebooted more than a few times. Most of the trouble seems to be with the CW HD channel, its horrible on Thursday nights. I recorded a show that was unwatchable because of it and scheduled an appointment for someone to check on things Monday. Anyone else experience problems with this channel?

Most of the trouble seems to be with the CW HD channel, its horrible on Thursday nights.

You have cable leakage, or ingress, in your house or on your street.

The frequency for channel 1815 on cable and WXXA analog over the air are the same. A bad connection or weak signal allows the WXXA analog signal to get into the cable and interfere with 1815.

Call Time Warner and schedule a service call.

Due to the analog shutdown, the problem will go away on February 17, 2009.

Question:

Some of you might remember but I had asked if I were able to get Digital Cable from my dorm room by using the box from my home (which is in albany) by bringing it to school since we were paying for 3 boxes and the third box, which was mine, wasn't being used since I left for school. You guys suggested that the signal should be the same so it should work, which it did. I was having success with the box and having my digital cable in my dorm room until I came home from work today. I noticed the box had the 4 dashes on the front and not the current time. When I powered on my TV it said "this setup box is NOT authorized for use. Call (blah blah blah). I called my mom and she said she paid the bill and cable was fine at the home. Is it possible that TWC somehow could find out that I was using the box from school and had it turned off since the primary location is at my actual home? I'm going to fiddle with it some more but I've tried twice already and it says the same thing: "This set top box is not authorized for use." Some feedback would be appreciated. This really sucks because I had all my HBO's and ESPNHD etc. Now I have to watch sportscenter in SD :(

Romo:

Maybe if you bring the box home and hook it up to the cable line so it will re-intitialize. Then you can bring it back to your dorm and use it for another month?

Romo:

Maybe if you bring the box home and hook it up to the cable line so it will re-intitialize. Then you can bring it back to your dorm and use it for another month?


I thought of that but I just went there and they gave me a new box. But what I'll probably do is bring it home first and have it start up and initialize there and then bring it to school when it's done and working.

If possible I would still like to know how and why they shut the box off?

If possible I would still like to know how and why they shut the box off?Without knowing how TWC does things, my guess is that the box will lose authorization every so often (maybe every month) unless hit with a reauthorization, and that your home and school are far enough apart that they aren't served by the same cable feed, possibly not even by the same head end, and that TWC only sends each box's authorization down the line it thinks the box is connected to.

You could leave the STB home and buy a SlingBox.

Without knowing how TWC does things, my guess is that the box will lose authorization every so often (maybe every month) unless hit with a reauthorization, and that your home and school are far enough apart that they aren't served by the same cable feed, possibly not even by the same head end, and that TWC only sends each box's authorization down the line it thinks the box is connected to.

You could leave the STB home and buy a SlingBox.

Thanks for the info. Definitely makes sense. I swear I get smarter with each post from you guys throughout this forum. I love it :)

BUT, I am very curious as to the bolded part. What's a slingbox? Will it allow me to have my current HD channels that I receive with the box? Please explain :)

P.S. I got the new box, but went home first and hooked it up, then brought it back to my school and I'm back in action :) ....at least for now lol

What's a slingbox? Will it allow me to have my current HD channels that I receive with the box? Please explain :)

A Slingbox connects an audio-video device to the internet and you can watch that device at another location. (The AV device can be a cable box, dvd player, stereo, etc) Sling just released its Slingbox Pro HD model, which has an ATSC tuner and will "sling" HD quality video. The quality of the "slinged" content depends on your internet connection's upload & download speeds.

Here's a link to a hands on review of the Pro HD model by Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/25/slingbox-pro-hd-unboxing-and-hands-on/

You can receive the HD content on your computer via the "Slingplayer" program. Also, Sling also will soon be releasing a "sling catcher", which is a device that connects to a TV (and the internet) to receive audio & video from a Slingbox.

You have cable leakage, or ingress, in your house or on your street.

The frequency for channel 1815 on cable and WXXA analog over the air are the same. A bad connection or weak signal allows the WXXA analog signal to get into the cable and interfere with 1815.

Call Time Warner and schedule a service call.

Due to the analog shutdown, the problem will go away on February 17, 2009.

Time Warner came today to look at my connection. The tech to my wife that the signal stregnth was ok, but he found a splitter in the crawl space that was not hooked up on one end. He thought we were getting a cable leak from there. I wish I could have been at home to see exactly what he did, but he thought that should fix it. I don't really understand how that could cause the problem, but we'll see on Thursday if it works. He told us to call back if we are still experiencing the problem and they'll come back out.

brady239:
After I read your first post on your problems with WCWN on cable I checked it with two of my tuners. I saw the problem you described, but only on one of them, an LG LST-3410A, and then only on cable. OTA was fine. A MyHD MDP-130 had no trouble getting WCWN from either source. The LG, my oldest receiver, has always had trouble locking to some QAM channels, and 74 (522-528 MHz), where WCWN and WRNN are, is usually the worst. I've assumed it's interference from broadcast channel 23 (524-530 MHz) leaking into the system, and once it definitely was; I tracked it down to a cheap RF switch with antenna on one input and cable on the other. Eliminating that greatly improved my reception of cable 74.

I have seen a similar problem with WCWN in the past, both OTA and cable. Sometimes the LG could show either OK, but recordings or timeshift would break up every few seconds on playback. I've also seen that symptom on WNYA-DT (cable-only, of course). They're on cable channel 98 (108-114 MHz). That's just above the FM band, between channels 6 and 7.

I'm not convinced that interference from OTA 23 is the only problem here. TWC could be doing something strange with their turnaround of the channel that some receivers can handle and others can't. As a partial test, when you see the problem on WCWN, see if it's doing it on WRNN as well. If not, that suggests interference isn't the cause.

FWIW, I checked WCWN on cable more recently and it was OK.

Ken,
Do the converter boxes you describe produce a HD output or only convert to SD?
Also, how can Albany and Utica both be to your northeast and you being 30 miles from Albany TV?the coupon convertor boxes put out SD but if you have an older TV with poor chip SD is better than nothing - really the picture is quite good in SD since it was a digital picture before it was turned to analog and only has to make it through a few feet of cable to get to to get to your TV as audio and video rather than analog RF signals traveling many miles.

i am in schoharie county sw of albany - if i was on a mountain i would aim my antenna northeast to get albany (but i am in a valley so i aim it towards a mountain west of me) - - utica is north west of me and comes through a valley so i can aim my antenna northwest right up the valley toward utica, the utica antenna also picks up albany's reflections sometimes better than the albany antenna (and when nothing else works i use the zenith boxes for SD since the LG chips in the zenith boxes are better than the TVs chips).

if your 1 year or older TV is having trouble, try the zenith box or any other with the LG chip - - - if your TV is having trouble and you need HD all the time you have to find a digital tuner that contains the latest LG chip (or buy a TV with LGs latest chip) but the $20 convertor box from zenith is my best cure for channels that drop out (other than a 2000 foot tower for line of sight)...

brady239:
After I read your first post on your problems with WCWN on cable I checked it with two of my tuners. I saw the problem you described, but only on one of them, an LG LST-3410A, and then only on cable. OTA was fine. A MyHD MDP-130 had no trouble getting WCWN from either source. The LG, my oldest receiver, has always had trouble locking to some QAM channels, and 74 (522-528 MHz), where WCWN and WRNN are, is usually the worst. I've assumed it's interference from broadcast channel 23 (524-530 MHz) leaking into the system, and once it definitely was; I tracked it down to a cheap RF switch with antenna on one input and cable on the other. Eliminating that greatly improved my reception of cable 74.

I have seen a similar problem with WCWN in the past, both OTA and cable. Sometimes the LG could show either OK, but recordings or timeshift would break up every few seconds on playback. I've also seen that symptom on WNYA-DT (cable-only, of course). They're on cable channel 98 (108-114 MHz). That's just above the FM band, between channels 6 and 7.

I'm not convinced that interference from OTA 23 is the only problem here. TWC could be doing something strange with their turnaround of the channel that some receivers can handle and others can't. As a partial test, when you see the problem on WCWN, see if it's doing it on WRNN as well. If not, that suggests interference isn't the cause.

FWIW, I checked WCWN on cable more recently and it was OK.

I will check on this tonight. My wife watches a few shows on WCWN Tuesday nights and we had been experiencing problems with those shows usually every week.

ETA: Actually on Cable what would WRNN be? The tech said he thought it was WXXA (ch. 23), but I'm not sure what WCNN is. All I have it the TX cable box, I don't have a tuner on my commercial model Panny plasma TV.

Actually on Cable what would WRNN be? The tech said he thought it was WXXA (ch. 23), but I'm not sure what WCNN is. All I have it the TX cable box, I don't have a tuner on my commercial model Panny plasma TV.My latest channel list from TWC says WRNN is in channel 91 and requires a digital converter. I have Basic cable and no cable box so I can't verify that. It's actually on 74-12, with WCWN on 74-20.

WRNN is mostly a home shopping and infomercial channel, although it does have a few other shows in the early evening. I've never watched it longer than needed to prove I could. What galls me is that Gemstar's TV Guide On Screen includes listings for WRNN but not for WNYA, which has a much better schedule and is HD-capable on cable as well.

the coupon convertor boxes put out SD but if you have an older TV with poor chip SD is better than nothing - really the picture is quite good in SD since it was a digital picture before it was turned to analog and only has to make it through a few feet of cable to get to to get to your TV as audio and video rather than analog RF signals traveling many miles..... if your 1 year or older TV is having trouble, try the zenith box or any other with the LG chip - - - if your TV is having trouble and you need HD all the time you have to find a digital tuner that contains the latest LG chip (or buy a TV with LGs latest chip) but the $20 convertor box from zenith is my best cure for channels that drop out (other than a 2000 foot tower for line of sight)...

I get SD just fine from DISH network. Cannot get CW or NBC in high def OTA. That is what I'm trying to overcome. Thought if the converter box had an HD output I would try that. Thanks though.

The CW HD channel 1815 seems to be better since the tech came out last week. I'm continuing to watch for the problem to repeat.

I noticed today that TWC in Rochester is getting the MOJO HD channel dropped (no more 3 Sheets), but are getting Hallmark HD, SPEED HD, Cartoon Network HD, FX HD, Tennis Channel HD and MGM HD. I wonder when we'll see these new HD channels in Albany on TWC? FX is a big add in my book.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/14/mojo-hd-falls-off-twc-rochester-6-newcomers-added-in/

DISH Network uplinked the four albany HD channels in March 2008. In July 2008 DISH made WNYT & WTEN available in HD, but not WRGB or WXXA. On 9/17/08 DISH deleted WRGB & WXXA from their uplink. Any idea what the problem was? Was this just a money thing with the stations and DISH not being able to agree on a reasonable retransmission fee? This seems to be happening a lot around the country with a lot of stations fighting with DISH over fees to retransmit. I have heard of some problems with DirecTV and even some cable cos, but it seems DISH has the most fights. What gives? Anyone in "the know" on this?

I stopped asking those kind of questions a year ago when I switched to DIRECTV. Now I get NFL HD, YES HD and the locals in HD without caring about legal battles keeping me from watching what I want.

Hi i am New here and still looking for the answer to that one posters question of a comparison of quality dish hd vs direct tv vs twc. i would like to know the quality difference as i have heard direct tv looks bad

Hi i am New here and still looking for the answer to that one posters question of a comparison of quality dish hd vs direct tv vs twc. i would like to know the quality difference as i have heard direct tv looks bad

No sure where you heard that, DIRECTV HD looks MUCH better than TWC since it's all MPEG-4.

DIRECTV SD looks a MILLIONS times better than TWC since it's ALL digital and not nearly as compressed.

I'd imagine Dish looks very simiar to DIRECTV.

xzittony do you have direct tv in albany area. cause my father has twc hd and picture quality stinks , so i am looking into satellite. how are the prices compared to twc?

I do, and I think the only caveats to be aware of are you don't get WMHT, WCWN or WNYA in HD on DIRECTV without an antenna. I have an antenna anyway since OTA HD looks much better than either, but a good thing to be aware of for sure.

As for picture quality, obviously no comparison, and as for National HD no question DIRECTV is better.

As far as price, it's pretty similar, except that you'll probably get a nice $20/off for a year for switching. I can also give you my account number and you'll get another $50 off if you sign up as a refer-a-friend program as well.

I wrote up a pretty good price/channel comparison over at http://albanyhdtv.proboards18.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Voom&thread=2247&page=1

I also wrote up a review on one of my sites at http://www.qwowi.com/2008/02/technology-and-gadgets/directv-satellite-television

hey tony i am seriously considering this. my question is this if i get 1 standard receiver and two HD receivers (non-DVR) my bill on the site says it will be 54.96 after 23 dollar per month discount. my question is this will there be any added hidden fees per month ? (my plan is choice extra locals free) will they be charging me additional fees per month for the boxes or is that included. and what would that 50 off refer a friend thing be off of?. my concern is it says 54.96 first months bill and then i get it and my bill is 75 dollars the second month? thanks in advance for the help
Chris

Your first receiver is free, extras are $4.99/mo (compared to $8/mo for TWC). HD Access is $9.99 but if you have an HD receiver in your cart, it's included. I believe that price you see also includes all the 4.99/mo receiver fees as well (it should) when you have everything in your cart and that price ($54.96 with the discount) sounds right to me. Check and see if there is an itemized list that shows two 4.99 mirroring fees and a 9.99 HD fee and that'd be everything.

They do not charge extras for locals.

thank you so much tony for all your help one last question ok two.. what happens to the price after the promotion and how long are the contracts? so how long am i paying the non promotion price? and so say i am paying 54.96 for 12 months then they eliminate the 23 dollar discount so now its 77.96 for how long? then when i renew will i get the promotion price or will i pay 77.96 forever? sorry for so many questions

You would pay that price for the length of the contract, then you would be subject to future price increases after that.

If you have an "advanced" receiver, which is either a DVR or an HD receiver, I think it's 18 or 24 months, you'll have to ask them. It goes by the receiver, though, much like a cell phone plan it depends on the equipment since that's what they are "subsidising" for you with the contract.

Once the contract is over (remember, it's an equipment contract really) you are no longer under contract, and never have to "renew". There is also prescedent for them allowing you to stay on older, cheaper contracts indefinitely (Total Choice customers for example) but if you ever want to add HBO for example, they force you up to the new pricing at that point (assuming your contract is up).

Some other important distictions between DIRECTV and TWC, too...
1. You don't own the equipment. Much like the cable company, they can take it back, upgrade you, etc. If you cancel service, you send back the receivers (for free). This allows them to upgrade the equipment if without costing you anything so they can compete with the cable companies there.
2. Because you pay for the month behind, not the month ahead (kiss those pro-rated messy bills goodbye) they require a credit check and good credit. I only bring it up because it is different than how TWC does business and it catches people by surprise that they need a credit card and your social security number (although if you bitch and moan loud enough they will skip it--especially if you go through a reseller).
3. And finally, you can manage your ENTIRE account online. No more calling them to add HBO, subscribe to Extra Innings, drop Showtime, change programming, etc. VERY handy if you ask me. You can even schedule your DVR from the website!

I get SD just fine from DISH network. Cannot get CW or NBC in high def OTA. That is what I'm trying to overcome. Thought if the converter box had an HD output I would try that. Thanks though.
if your TV isn't the newest model with the newest chip, you could try the latest model (with the newest chip) HD/digital tuner (the kind you would use if you just had a monitor) - that will have HD output...

This is true.
I use the samsung hd tuner #dtb-h260f.
It works great but it will run you $200.

I have a brand new 50 inch Samsung plasma. Would that tuner be better than the one that is in my Samsung? I think I would rather put the 200 in better antennas.

No, if your TV is brand new it has the same chip set or a better set already in it.
I use the tuner with my projector.

Bought the CEB Zenith DTT-901.
Seems to work well so far.
It doesn't lock as well as my Samsung, seems to let the signal drift around.
On the Samsung the signal meter may flicker up or down one bar, where the Zenith meter fluctuates from one end to the other.
Has only been a problem with WXXA so far, still only occasional macro blocking or audio drops.
I was a bit suprised because this model was touted as having the new chip set, an better reception.

Just got this email fro TW Albany NY

New HD Channels coming the week of 10/27

MGM HD – channel 1861 – features movies from MGM’s library of over 1200 movies filmed in HD compatible format as well as over 4100 titles in the library of theatricals.

Hallmark Movie Channel HD – channel 1852– If you love Hallmark Channel, you’ll love Hallmark Movie Channel HD! The best family movies in HD.
Bio HD- channel 1826 - Bio original series uncover the real drama in people stories: everyday situations with a twist; celebrities going off-script; people-centric crime stories and paranormal events. In addition to being the exclusive home to the Emmy-Award winning Biography® series, Bio's dynamic blend of original and acquired series includes The Final 24, Psychic Investigators and the upcoming William Shatner hosted talk show, Shatner's Raw Nerve. The Bio and Bio HD website is located at www.bio.com

Toon Disney HD- Channel 1831 (Digital DH) - Toon Disney HD is owned by the Walt Disney Company that mostly airs children's animated television series. A spin-off of the Disney Channel, Toon disney shows children's cartoons 24 hours a day (except for minimal live action programming); its format has similarties to those of Cartoon Network. Toon Disney's target audience are children ages 2-11, with the exceptions of programming used in a night time block aimed at children ages 7-13 called Jetix.

Tennis Channel HD- channel 1868 (Sports Tier HD)– Anyone for Tennis in HD? The network broadcasts 24 hours a day and features live tournaments, news, one-on-one interviews, game analysis and skills instruction. It also features programming from other racquet sports such as squash, badminton, racquetball, table tennis and paddle tennis.

Upcoming HD Channels

The following channels are on our list of HD Channels to be added in the near future: Cartoon Network HD, SPEED HD, FX HD, TV One HD, Crimes & Investigations HD, and Encore HD.


Please let us know if we can be of any additional assistance.
Thank you for being a Time Warner Cable customer.


------
Donald
Customer Care Team
Time Warner Cable
Albany Division
1021 Highbridge Rd
Schenectady, NY 12303
1-866-321-2225

Just began receiving THIS TV, OTA channel 45.2 in the Albany, NY area. Tonight was the first I noticed it.

Me too.
It appears to be the Universal Sports channel from 6-2 with no sound.
Possibly a test signal for a new, as yet unnamed, station.

Me too.
It appears to be the Universal Sports channel from 6-2 with no sound.
Possibly a test signal for a new, as yet unnamed, station.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6608561.html

- Trip

Quick reply from VA.
Sounds great, a movie channel, though I liked the previous video channel.
Looks like there will be commercials, " Bryan describes This as the rare ad-supported broadcast movie network. "
I wonder how much of the content will be censored?

I guess it is called "This TV", hmm...we'll have to see what the content will be about when it is up and running, which should be Nov. 1, according to this info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_TV