Verizon DSL has up to 7.1Mbps of dedicated bandwidth. Much faster than cable's shared 6Mbps access. The down side is that there is a distance limitation of around 11kft from the CO and you have to be on straight copper to the CO. I'm not sure if any Remotes have the 7.1Mbps capacity. I'd assume most COs around here have it now considering we have it in Sissonville.
Tony: I still have my Verizon DSL and use it primarily for business. I am in the South Charleston area, and it just doesn't seem like it is as fast as the Suddenlink connection. When I do a speed test, it runs about half the speed of the Suddenlink connection. Is there anything I can do to boost the speed of the DSL?

lsdean

Thanks for all the updates on CBS game times and teams.

DirecTV - 11 launch was sucessful

Once they get it up and running, Charleston-Huntington should be on the list of DMA's it will provide HD local service to. This is a good day for DirecTV subs.

It is also a good day for cable subs, because up until now, cable has had the advantage of having local HD and that keeps a number of subs around. Now that DirecTV will have HD locals and over 100 HD channels, either cable will add national HD channels or some subs will leave.

Tony: I still have my Verizon DSL and use it primarily for business. I am in the South Charleston area, and it just doesn't seem like it is as fast as the Suddenlink connection. When I do a speed test, it runs about half the speed of the Suddenlink connection. Is there anything I can do to boost the speed of the DSL?

Which Bandwidth do you purchase currently?

:(

Not my RT here in Teays Valley. From the techs I have talked to it is all ready for the litespan cards and the CO is serving a couple of litespan remote terminals, but not mine.

I was perfectly happy with cable internet when I had Adelphia. Service was about as rock solid as cable internet can be and with only 100 or so users on a fiber hub, bandwidth was never a problem.

Then Comcast took over and moved our peering from Ironton to Virginia and service has sucked ever since. I have to reboot my modeon once a week, have intermitent dropouts and have lost service for 12+ hours several times.

Can't wait until my RT is upgraded.

Given that it's an RT, it may not have the bandwidth capacity back to the CO to handle anything larger than 768kbps or 1.5Mbps. However, in your area, they may have decided to provide enough bandwidth to the RT from the CO to support 3Mbps for each active port.

Given that it's an RT, it may not have the bandwidth capacity back to the CO to handle anything larger than 768kbps or 1.5Mbps.

When I had DSL before *, I initially had the 768 package and then they opened up to let everyone get what they can up to 1.5 and I was getting 1.1 or so about 16,500' directly from the CO.

* I had DSL in my last house and then we moved across the street and the new house can't get it. The reason is when the business park went in about 10 years ago, it took all the available numbers from the main trunk line, so Verizon had to quickly run some fiber for Litespan to be able to provide service to additional customers. They moved some of the old customers from copper to the Litespan system - why I don't know. But I remember when it happened as my dial-up went from 40ish to 20ish. That is when I got one-way satellite as cable was not available yet.

At the last house, I had Verizon put in an additional number and put the requirement that it be all copper back to the CO. It took a few calls to Presidential Appeals, but it finally got done and I got DSL. The new house is on Litespan, and since cable was now available, I didn't go to all the trouble
to get an all copper number. Plus one of my daughter's friend's dad is a Verizon tech and he keeps telling me that all RT's in Putnam County are supposed to be equipped by the end of 2007. Well, its almost 2Q 2008 and still nothing. My guess is my RT will feed some of the areas that are under construction for the new Rt. 35, so until that gets finished, providing DSL to a few customers is not worth it.

When I had DSL before *, I initially had the 768 package and then they opened up to let everyone get what they can up to 1.5 and I was getting 1.1 or so about 16,500' directly from the CO.

* I had DSL in my last house and then we moved across the street and the new house can't get it. The reason is when the business park went in about 10 years ago, it took all the available numbers from the main trunk line, so Verizon had to quickly run some fiber for Litespan to be able to provide service to additional customers. They moved some of the old customers from copper to the Litespan system - why I don't know. But I remember when it happened as my dial-up went from 40ish to 20ish. That is when I got one-way satellite as cable was not available yet.

At the last house, I had Verizon put in an additional number and put the requirement that it be all copper back to the CO. It took a few calls to Presidential Appeals, but it finally got done and I got DSL. The new house is on Litespan, and since cable was now available, I didn't go to all the trouble
to get an all copper number. Plus one of my daughter's friend's dad is a Verizon tech and he keeps telling me that all RT's in Putnam County are supposed to be equipped by the end of 2007. Well, its almost 2Q 2008 and still nothing. My guess is my RT will feed some of the areas that are under construction for the new Rt. 35, so until that gets finished, providing DSL to a few customers is not worth it.

Funny that you were able to get straight copper to the CO on a presidential appeal. I'm an engineer for the company (not a DSL engineer though), yet it's taken me THREE weeks to try and get a technician to go out and cut off a Bridge Tap so I can qualify for 3Mbps service. Hasn't happened yet. Maybe I should do what you did and just act as a normal customer (as I am that as well) and escalate.

I read on the D11 thread that D* stated that they will not have it operational until SEPTEMBER. Yikes, if that's true, that's a long wait. I only hope that it's because they will have most agreements in place, tested, and when the new channels go live in September, most if not all 1500 Local HD Channels will be available. I know..wishful thinking.

That comment was from a D* rep. There were several wrong statements made by him that regarded current operations. I'm not sure I would take that as gospel.

That comment was from a D* rep. There were several wrong statements made by him that regarded current operations. I'm not sure I would take that as gospel.

Everyone is saying D11 should be operational quicker than D10, I hope.

However, the front page of AVS said that Dish and D* got approval to downgrade Local HD until 2013 because they don't have enough Power for full HD. That really stinks. I guess I'll stick with my Antenna for 3-1, 8-1 and 11-1 and use D* for 13-1.

I think have the 1.5 I know that when I got it, it was the fastest that I could get at the time. Seems like I started with 756, then got bumped up. I don't know for sure, because that was some time ago.

Congrats Mountaineers!

Unfortunately, the 768kbps is like the "Dial Up" of Broadband now. Webpages are so data heavy now, it takes a lot to just surf the web. You may want to call Verizon and see if they can upgrade you to 3Mbps. It's the SAME price as 1.5Mbps, but if you had 1.5Mbps, they wouldn't upgrade you to 3 Automatically. You'll have to call and request it. 3Mbps is fast for DSL, but some Cable companies offer 5Mbps, 10Mbps and 20Mbps. For Verizon, unless you are lucky enough "in another state" to get FIOS, you are limited to bandwidth over their old copper lines. With FIOS, customers in the near future will have up to 52Mbps. So, looking at all that, it's easy to see where 768, 1.5 and even 3Mbps isn't fast for these days.

I think have the 1.5 I know that when I got it, it was the fastest that I could get at the time. Seems like I started with 756, then got bumped up. I don't know for sure, because that was some time ago.

I'm in the same boat as you Tony.....I have never been able to get a good 13-1 signal and it is closer than 33, 29, 8, and 11. A weak HD on Directv is better than what I get on my antenna.

However, the front page of AVS said that Dish and D* got approval to downgrade Local HD until 2013 because they don't have enough Power for full HD. That really stinks. I guess I'll stick with my Antenna for 3-1, 8-1 and 11-1 and use D* for 13-1.

From what I have been reading this really won't affect us. This is more for the much lower DMA's that might provide an HD digital signal to D*, but D* will downgrade it to provide that DMA's SD locals.

For example, an affiliate in DMA #170 is only providing an HD digital signal after the February 2009 transition. Since D* doesn't have the capacity to provide that DMA's locals in HD, D* will have the option to downconvert that HD signal to SD as part of that DMA's LIL.

I'm definitely feeling the trouble with 13.1, I'm in the Point Pleasant area. Some days, given atmospheric conditions, the signal disappears entirely. I find I have to aim my antenna directly for 13 and accept the signal I get on the other stations. Here's the location of the tower if it serves you any use.

http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapgen/gif?lon=-82.208889&lat=38.505556&iwd=400&iht=400&mark=-82.208889,38.505556,bluestar,WOWK-TV_HUNTINGTON_WV&on=water,miscell,counties,places,CITIES,&off=streets,GRID,shorelin&ht=0.5&wid=0.5

The problem is really that WOWK-DT is currently being broadcast on channel 47 in the UHF band. And it's very underpowered, even more so than all the other channels which are doing the same thing. The good news is that they've already applied to switch over the HD feed to the full powered VHF broadcast on 13 come next February. That should improve the situation immensely.

I'm really uninterested in receiving local HD over Dish, they compress everything too much anyway. I'll just be happy come February when I won't be losing CBS when there's too much fog out :mad:. But really the nice thing about digital broadcast is that it is all or or nothing so 20% signal looks the same as 100% signal. I just run in to the problem of more interference from things like weather and my microwave at 20% :rolleyes:.

Now if WOWK would just catch up with the other three stations and go Dolby 5.1.

The problem is really that WOWK-DT is currently being broadcast on channel 47 in the UHF band. The good news is that they've already applied to switch over the HD feed to the full powered VHF broadcast on 13 come next February.

Its their own damn fault. They did not get with the program early enough and ended up with a high UHF channel. Have they officially been approved for VHF-13? I know that a Columbus station had rights to it (again due to WVMH dragging their feet), but had applied to go back to their orignal channel.

As far as I can tell it is going to happen. The FCC has the application listed here: fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WOWK and antennaweb.org lists it as the new 13.1 after February 17, 2009. In fact WOWK is the only one with that change currently mentioned. However I don't really know beyond that. I've had hope in the assumption that all of the stations will switch the HD to their VHF stations come 2009 but I've heard nothing official yet.

Its their own damn fault. They did not get with the program early enough and ended up with a high UHF channel. Have they officially been approved for VHF-13? I know that a Columbus station had rights to it (again due to WVMH dragging their feet), but had applied to go back to their orignal channel.

Wow.

Okay, I'm no defender of WOWK and I know how much they've dragged their feet, but I feel a need to correct some misinformation.

1. They did not end up with their UHF channel because they were "late" in any way. The FCC assigned all the digital channels at the same time, and WOWK was granted channel 54. Being out of the core, WOWK got their digital moved down to channel 47 instead, I assume because it was the best available channel to them.

2. They've been approved for channel 13.

3. WSYX-DT in Columbus would have had the rights to channel 13 even if WOWK had been the first digital station in the nation as long as they were broadcasting on channel 47. The FCC decided that existing digital stations would hold priority over existing analog stations. This screwed over a number of stations aside from WOWK, in fact WVMH single-handedly screwed over WDBJ in Roanoke and WSWP in Grandview by moving WVNS-DT from channel 48 to channel 8, thus disallowing either station to return to their analog channel.

4. WSYX-DT applied to move to channel 36 (with WTTE-DT moving back to 28) but the FCC denied this. Whether the FCC wouldn't let them move off of 13 or they chose 13 in the first place makes no difference for how WSYX-DT is prioritized over WOWK.

Again, I'm no fan of WOWK myself, but let's at least be honest and accurate about it.

- Trip

The FCC assigned all the digital channels at the same time, and WOWK was granted channel 54. Being out of the core, WOWK got their digital moved down to channel 47 instead, I assume because it was the best available channel to them.

So how is it that the newest channel in the market (WVAH) got the best slot (19 UHF)? (Actually the newest channel (some WB/CW affiliate got 17, but no one can pick it up).) And one of the old established channels got hosed?



2. They've been approved for channel 13.

3. WSYX-DT in Columbus would have had the rights to channel 13

4. Whether the FCC wouldn't let them move off of 13 or they chose 13 in the first place makes no difference for how WSYX-DT is prioritized over WOWK.

So where did WSYX-DT go?

As for WOWK dragging their feet, you have been around this thread to know what the initials AC stand for. The came into this kicking and screaming and then throwing a temper tantrum when it looked like the DT conversion was going to actually happen. They were last to pass the HD signal and were beat to the punch by over a year even though tow affiliate lost their tower to a collapse.

So please, lets not let facts get in the way of dragging everything WOWK though the mud. ;);):D

Prediction: Even though I have an email (and its archived) from the AC himself indicating a deal was in place to have their HD channel carried on D* when D* was ready, I predict that the other 3 (Sinclair and Gray have blanket agreements) will launch and WOWK will not. The AC will find a way to blame somebody else, but we will know that it is his fault.:(

So how is it that the newest channel in the market (WVAH) got the best slot (19 UHF)? (Actually the newest channel (some WB/CW affiliate got 17, but no one can pick it up).) And one of the old established channels got hosed?

The channels were selected by a computer program. A lot of "established" stations ended up with really high channels because those were the only ones that were clear enough to provide coverage areas without interference. The program determined that 54 would be the best channel available for WOWK... I imagine 19 would not have worked as well because of WOUB, but I don't know for sure.

Check out these "established" stations:
WCBS-56
KCBS-60
KABC-53
KTTV-65
KCOP-66
WLS-52
WPVI-64
WCAU-67
KTVU-56
KRON-57

And those are just from the top five or six markets. Some of those stations date to the early 40's, and CBS was a leader in HDTV and look how screwed they are, with 56 and 60 in NY and LA, and channel 3 (ick) in Chicago.

So where did WSYX-DT go?

They're on channel 13.

As for WOWK dragging their feet, you have been around this thread to know what the initials AC stand for. The came into this kicking and screaming and then throwing a temper tantrum when it looked like the DT conversion was going to actually happen. They were last to pass the HD signal and were beat to the punch by over a year even though tow affiliate lost their tower to a collapse.

So please, lets not let facts get in the way of dragging everything WOWK though the mud. ;);):D

Prediction: Even though I have an email (and its archived) from the AC himself indicating a deal was in place to have their HD channel carried on D* when D* was ready, I predict that the other 3 (Sinclair and Gray have blanket agreements) will launch and WOWK will not. The AC will find a way to blame somebody else, but we will know that it is his fault.:(

Believe me, I'm not defending WOWK, I'm just trying to make sure that they get blamed for things that are actually their fault. There's plenty to work with there without having to drag false things into the thread. ;)

- Trip

They're on channel 13.


Are they staying there? If they do, there is bound to be some overlap in coverage in the northern areas of the DMA. (Of course assuming WOWK gets rid of the gerbil on the wheel and uses a real power supply.;))

Are they staying there? If they do, there is bound to be some overlap in coverage in the northern areas of the DMA. (Of course assuming WOWK gets rid of the gerbil on the wheel and uses a real power supply.;))

They're looking to do 6.9 kW from 1358' above average terrain. Here's the FCC's predicted coverage contour:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1235430.html

The power may seem low, but VHF signals carry a lot further than UHF signals with the same amount of power.

Here's WSYX-DT's coverage contour:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT674641.html

I can see where there will be some overlap, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Sinclair try to move WSYX off of VHF again once the transition is over. It may not happen for financial reasons, but they did ask for it in the first place, and UHF is easier to receive with an indoor antenna than VHF is, even at high power.

Besides, WTVG on the other side of WSYX-DT is moving back to channel 13 as well, the Columbus station is getting squeezed from both sides.

- Trip

I live in that bend on the river near Crown City. Due South of Pt Pleasant....I am gald to know I'm not the only one and I'm not crazy. I have called WOWK tv numerous times but they tell me it is my equipment and I should be able to pick it up with just rabbit ears blah blah blah. I even bought an amp which helped with all other stations except 13. They are indeed behind the times and yes they were the last to jump in. Their SD signal is even bad. I wont be supprised if they hold up our D** roll out. We shall see.

I wont be supprised if they hold up our D** roll out. We shall see.

I don't think they will hold it up as the other 3 stations are owned by Sinclair and Gray which have blanket agreements in place. And D* has put as few as two HD affiliates up in some markets, so 3 of 4 would not be a problem.

...I'm really uninterested in receiving local HD over Dish, they compress everything too much anyway. I'll just be happy come February when I won't be losing CBS when there's too much fog out :mad:. But really the nice thing about digital broadcast is that it is all or or nothing so 20% signal looks the same as 100% signal. I just run in to the problem of more interference from things like weather and my microwave at 20% :rolleyes:.

Now if WOWK would just catch up with the other three stations and go Dolby 5.1.

I want Locals on D* for recording purposes. Currently, I have the D* HD DVR with ATSC Tuner for recording OTA. However, it has severe problems. The Tuner 1 is screwed up, but D* won't replace it without a tech coming out first. The problem is, it messes up multiple times a day, then doesn't again for a week. So, if I want to record and watch my programs, I have to constantly reset my DVR. Everytime I've had a tech scheduled, the DVR worked fine the night before, so I rescheduled the appointment. I've done this 4 times, and finally got fed up with it. I talked to a rep at D* who thanked me for rescheduling when the DVR was working because if it was working fine, it would have been a wasted trip for the tech. So, a long story to my point. If D* was to switch out my HD DVR, I'd most likely get the new receiver that does not have the ATSC Tuner built in. Therefore, I lose my ability to record my Network Shows in HD. My plan is to wait until D* has the locals in HD, and then I'll begin calling D* again to replace my faulty receiver. Until then, I'll just keep resetting it so I can record my Network Channels in HD.

I live in South Point, Ohio and I get 11.1,30.1,25.1,25.2,25.3,25.4,25.5,25.6,42.1,42.2,42.3 and 8.1, cannot get 3.1 or 3.2 or 13.1. I have trees in front and cack of house and antenna is about 20 feet high pointing east. I am using a winegard gs 2200 with an amp. Any suggestions

I just signed onto Direct because of the lack of HD channels on Time. Only thing I am going to miss is NBC in HD. What is the latest word on Locals in HD in the Ashland KY market. Wsaz Wchs and Fox. Beyond those what about CW? They are such a small station anyways they dont even broadcast CW in HD on Time. Too bad we watch a few shows on CW that I know is filmed in HD.

I just signed onto Direct because of the lack of HD channels on Time. Only thing I am going to miss is NBC in HD. What is the latest word on Locals in HD in the Ashland KY market. Wsaz Wchs and Fox. Beyond those what about CW? They are such a small station anyways they dont even broadcast CW in HD on Time. Too bad we watch a few shows on CW that I know is filmed in HD.

I don't think there is any real word on when locals in HD will be broadcast on D*. However I get NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC with good signals OTA. Is that an option for you?

risk of sounding stupid;) OTA meaning HD Antenna? I guess. I live in South Ashland. What one do you suggest?

Yes, OTA stands for Over the Air. I also live in South Ashland (Crest St). To be honest I don't know what type of antenna it is, but you are more than welcome to come take a look.

Is not A HD Antenna different than a regular antenna?

i live off 168 just inside ashland city limits. i have a channel master 4228 in my attic. i get all the locals plus pbs from ky and oh. you likely could get wsaz and wowk with just a small set top antenna (rabbit ears) depending on your line of site to the towers. i have a large hill blocking me, so i had to get the larger antenna and an amp.

i'm still on TW and HATE it. i will be switching to DTV as soon as they get our local hd's up. i would like to get the CW in HD as well (the wife and i both love smallville).

I don't think there is any real word on when locals in HD will be broadcast on D*. However I get NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC with good signals OTA. Is that an option for you?

The latest press release has something like 7 or 11 areas getting Local HD this fall....We are not one of them. There is a thread on the HD Programming that discusses it.

I switched from TW to DTV and its so much better! I would have stuck with TW if they had more HD channels but I just got tired of waiting. I am getting 96 out of 100 signal on a cloudy day and I have never seen a clearer HD picture on my TV. I'll go as far as to say the non hd even looks better.

I also wish the locals in HD come soon on DTV. My wife and I also watch Smallville. I fear even when 3, 8, and 13 becomes hd on Direct we will still have to wait for CW. Our CW is kinda a small station. I guess I'll get my Smallville HD fix on HDnet reruns.

Word of caution there is alot of crap on Direct that I had to fix on favorites. Even by auto filtering out what we dont pay for it did not get rid of everything and it took me a while to get rid of it all. We had dish years ago and it did not seem very hard getting rid of the channels we did not have.

Congrats PhotoM.

Which receiver did you get?

It does awhile to set up your favorites, but well worth it to me.

Congrats PhotoM.

Which receiver did you get?

It does awhile to set up your favorites, but well worth it to me.

How can I tell? I don't really see a brand on it. I brought up that I still had a old receiver from years ago when we used to have Direct. The install guys said this was the newest HD one. Its a black receiver with a white top remote with a black bottom on it.

Is not A HD Antenna different than a regular antenna?

An antenna is an antenna. As long as your antenna picks up UHF, it can pick up HD signals. When you go to a store and it 'specifically' says "HD Antenna", it's just a marketing technique. I can't tell you how many people I know took their old VHF/UH Antenna down from their roof to replace it with a new "HD" antenna. :rolleyes:

This is just another one of those several things that retailers have no clue on and will sell you an antenna that says "HD" as they really think you need those words on the box.

Now, when I say an antenna is an antenna, some are better than others, but there is not an antenna that is made specifically for HD. It's either VHF, UHF or both. Analog or Digital, doesn't matter.

I live in the St. Albans area, and have most everything Suddenlink offers. I'm running the SA 8300HD DVR, and am interested in added external storage. Does anyone have any experience adding 500 gb to 1 tb of storage to these DVR's? I browsed the forums, and there seems to be a lot, but haven't seen much dealings in our area. Thanks...

Welcome to the forum....although I have never done it, and someone else on here may have experience...I understand it would be much "easier" to use the USB port on the DVR, and add an external hard drive, such as the Western Digital My Book. Should be fairly simple plug and play. I have the same DVR and an external drive, and may try it out this weekend.

well, my TWC bill just went from $126 to $149 a month. the say that they were not charging us for an extra hd dvr or one of our digital packages. they also were not charging us $7.96/month in taxes. we have had the same service for 2 years now. they also raised all their prices. i am at my end with these crooks. i am currently researching in order to switch to dtv. i have question, can i watch tv in my bedroom without having a sep box? we only watch this set maybe 30 min to an hour each day. can i hook it up to the hd dvr that will be in the living room? do i have to have phone service? we use cell phones and do not have telephone service.

thnx

I think I am about to take the same step. I keep waiting for Time Warner to add more HD channels and WOWK HD. There have been no changes in months except that my TIVO downloaded the new channel lineup that has been listed on TW's website for several months. Since the new lineup has not been implemented my TIVO is not usable for recording digital programming.

Please let us know how your research goes and if you sign up with dtv through their website or through a local dealer.

can i hook it up to the hd dvr that will be in the living room? do i have to have phone service?

Yes, but you will need to run at least 3 cables to your bedroom (composite & L/R audio) or 5 if you want HD (3 component + 2 audio). The nice thing is the current HD DVR's output on both component and HDMI, so there are no issues there. (You could use a modulator and get by with one cable, but quality would suck.)

No you don't need a phone line no matter what they might tell you. It is only used for PPV which you can order off the website. Or you can hook the box up to your LAN.

With the new satellite launched, it should only be a matter of time until our HD networks are up in HD.:)

Yes, but you will need to run at least 3 cables to your bedroom (composite & L/R audio) or 5 if you want HD (3 component + 2 audio). The nice thing is the current HD DVR's output on both component and HDMI, so there are no issues there. (You could use a modulator and get by with one cable, but quality would suck.)

No you don't need a phone line no matter what they might tell you. It is only used for PPV which you can order off the website. Or you can hook the box up to your LAN.

With the new satellite launched, it should only be a matter of time until our HD networks are up in HD.:)


thnx for the help! i will actually be running component from the box to my 55" sony in the living room (the hdmi board went out on it over a year ago). i installed an hdmi wall jack that allows me to plug the hdmi from the box in the living room into the wall. the other side is in my bedroom and i just have to plug another hdmi cable from that wall to my lcd. will i be able to change channels in the bedroom or would i need an rf transmitter for the remote signal to reach the box in the living room? the only other snag i'm going to have is that the cable in my house is not rg6. i will need a run to my living room and to my theater in the basement. it would be soo much easier if i could just plug the satelite into the existing splitter in my basement and have a signal at all my jacks (6). i read-up and confirmed that the rg6 will be an issue as well as splitting the signal.

I think I am about to take the same step. I keep waiting for Time Warner to add more HD channels and WOWK HD. There have been no changes in months except that my TIVO downloaded the new channel lineup that has been listed on TW's website for several months. Since the new lineup has not been implemented my TIVO is not usable for recording digital programming.

Please let us know how your research goes and if sign up with dtv through their website or through a local dealer.

you might want to review what you are watching vs what you pay for. i did some research and found out that i was paying an extra $7/month for the "HD" package with TW. it turns out you only get 4 "extra" channels with this pack; universal hd, hdnet, hdnet movie, and mojo. premium channels, wsaz, wchs, wvah, hdtheater, tnt, tbs, espn, and espn2 in hd are all included with the package that includes their SD channel. i have netflix and rarely watched anything on the other 4 channels.

will i be able to change channels in the bedroom or would i need an rf transmitter for the remote signal to reach the box in the living room?

The DirecTV boxes do RF natively. You will just need to buy a DirecTV RF remote and you can control it from the bedroom.


the only other snag i'm going to have is that the cable in my house is not rg6. i will need a run to my living room and to my theater in the basement. it would be soo much easier if i could just plug the satelite into the existing splitter in my basement and have a signal at all my jacks (6). i read-up and confirmed that the rg6 will be an issue as well as splitting the signal

$300 or so can fix your problem. Its called a Single Wire Multiswitch, but as of now, DirecTV is not providing them as part of residential installs. So you have to buy one. It allows you to split signal to up to 8 tuners and I think people are using RG59 with them with some success. DirecTV will run RG6 for you.

i'm ready to take the plunge. $77.98/month gets me 200+ channels and 30 hd channels with 2 hd dvrs. they are offering an $18/month credit for 12 months and free starz/showtime for 3 months. soo all that for $59.98/month for 12 months.

last question before i hit the "submit" button. in the terms of agreement it indicates that i agree to keep the units hooked-up to a land based phone line in order to activate the receivers and allow pay-per view purchases. i know that i can get pay-per view without the phone line, but will i be able to "activate" the receivers without having phone service? i don't want to go thru all this and have the tech show-up to install and then tell me i need to have basic phone service for this to work (that would be a deal breaker).

thnx again for all your help!

just called and the rep confirmed home phone service is not required or needed for activation or pay-per view or anything really...

i'm in!

install is sched for next sat b/w 8am-12pm.

i can't wait!

Welcome away from the dark side.

What are you doing for internet? If you have TW, how is the service compared to Adelphia? I know that in the my area where Comcast took over we went from a stable system to junk. DSL should be available soon and I can't wait. I will give up 6.0 and drop back to 3.0 for a stable connection.

i will keep my roadrunner cable internet from TW. i called them this morning and confirmed i can drop all my services except for internet and there is no additional charges ($44/month for the medium speed package). i never had any issues with TW as far as reliablility, but their HD offering is terrible. and the price is waay too high for what you get. i had planned to get dtv all along and was just trying to hold out until the locals were up in hd.

......With the new satellite launched, it should only be a matter of time until our HD networks are up in HD.:)

I've lost faith in Local HDs for our market on D*. I have heard "It should be early next year" for a couple years now. With the Lauch of D11, I thought we'd be one of the firsts. Appears they are only adding a few at a time and the list for this Fall is out, and we aren't on it. I thought D* would have added many more by the Fall, but those in the 'KNOW' on the "Programming" thread said they only do so many at a time. I guess there is still a chance we'll see them come the end of the year, but I'd say that chance is VERY Slim. Looks like another "It should be early next year".

I've lost faith in Local HDs for our market on D*. I have heard "It should be early next year" for a couple years now. With the Lauch of D11, I thought we'd be one of the firsts. Appears they are only adding a few at a time and the list for this Fall is out, and we aren't on it. I thought D* would have added many more by the Fall, but those in the 'KNOW' on the "Programming" thread said they only do so many at a time. I guess there is still a chance we'll see them come the end of the year, but I'd say that chance is VERY Slim. Looks like another "It should be early next year".

Yeah, Tony, I am with you on that. It is pretty frustrating, but there appears to be no rhyme or reason to how DirecTV adds locals. So, I guess in short, it remains a guessing game.

Well, anyway, maybe DirecTV's D11 may add more National Channels as they come available. I am still very happy with DTV's National Channel roundup, of course, I do get 3 of 4 locals OTA, and hope to add a Channel Master preamp soon to see if I can get WSAZ consistently.

I may not be so cheerful though, if I couldn't get those local HD channels OTA.

my previous research has led me to believe that the latests dtv hd dvrs do NOT allow you to record the OTA signal. is this correct? i have a home theater pc that i use for OTA recording (ATI hd wonder and beyond tv), but would like the option of using one box.

my previous research has led me to believe that the latests dtv hd dvrs do NOT allow you to record the OTA signal. is this correct? i have a home theater pc that i use for OTA recording (ATI hd wonder and beyond tv), but would like the option of using one box.

Relative to D*, I have an HD DVR that records OTA HD. However, the new line of HD DVRs from D* do NOT have the NTSC tuners, so they will not record OTA. If you order an HD DVR from D*, you can request the model with OTA capability, but no guarantees you can get one. I can't comment on Dish, but I don't think you can with them either.

Not sure if you've heard, but EchoStar has a new HD DVR coming out this summer (not sure the cost or the exact date) that is built upon their HD DVR through Dish, but this is ONLY for OTA. You don't have to subscriber to D* or E* to get it, nor do you have to pay any monthly fees. It has a 14 day (I think) program guide through TV Guide. Looks very nice to record OTA programs in HD for those that do not have an HD DVR with a built in OTA tuner, such as the last model through D*

Link to Echostar OTA HD DVR from CES 2008.

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-1_1-9840910-67.html

Yeah, Tony, I am with you on that. It is pretty frustrating, but there appears to be no rhyme or reason to how DirecTV adds locals. So, I guess in short, it remains a guessing game.

Well, anyway, maybe DirecTV's D11 may add more National Channels as they come available. I am still very happy with DTV's National Channel roundup, of course, I do get 3 of 4 locals OTA, and hope to add a Channel Master preamp soon to see if I can get WSAZ consistently.

I may not be so cheerful though, if I couldn't get those local HD channels OTA.

I can pick up 3 of the four. I cannot get WOWK. I have been reluctant to spend the money on a nice Antenna and roof mount or attic mount as I've been waiting for D* to add the HD Locals. I keep thinking we are closer to getting them (which in reality, I guess we are each day aren't we?), and I don't want to mess with nor pay the money for a nice antenna.

I'd like it by the Fall as I read Survivor will finally be in HD. I don't like Reality shows much, but have always enjoyed Survivor and will be a blast in HD.

I've lost faith in Local HDs for our market on D*. I have heard "It should be early next year" for a couple years now. With the Lauch of D11, I thought we'd be one of the firsts.

D*11 is not even parked yet, so any announcement of HD locals are being supplied with the current sats. Also, some of those announced markets are for SD locals off the new satellites as D* needs to move locals off the 72.5 slot. Once D*11 is parked, I would expect to see the top 100 markets finished off rather quickly.


my previous research has led me to believe that the latests dtv hd dvrs do NOT allow you to record the OTA signal. is this correct? .....but would like the option of using one box.

No they do not have a built in ATSC OTA tuner. However, there is a USB add-on called the AM21 that provides ATSC OTA capability to these boxes. I have had one since January and it works great. They should be available sometime this month.

D*11 is not even parked yet, so any announcement of HD locals are being supplied with the current sats. Also, some of those announced markets are for SD locals off the new satellites as D* needs to move locals off the 72.5 slot. Once D*11 is parked, I would expect to see the top 100 markets finished off rather quickly.

I really hope you are correct. I can't find the thread this was being discussed under. Someone asked what Local HDs would be added up front with D11. Someone posted a link to D* showing the 7 or 11 Markets going live this Fall for D*. I posted exactly what you said. I said something in the fashion of maybe 7-11 BEFORE the launch of D11, but should be many more once D11 is ready. Ken said NO, they only add so many at a time and the release was out and it will be only the 7-11 ( I can't remember the exact number, but it wasn't high). Again, I really hope you are right as I want them in HD through D*, but from my understanding, we aren't on the list for Fall. Maybe they'll add many more this winter.

Anyone know anyone local, Charleston area, that does TV calibrations?? I've read that if you get someone who knows what they are doing it can make a world of difference. I'd rather pay a local place instead of a retailer like CC, I hate that damn place, they only care about the money, not the customers or employees for that matter.

Anyone know anyone local, Charleston area, that does TV calibrations?? I've read that if you get someone who knows what they are doing it can make a world of difference. I'd rather pay a local place instead of a retailer like CC, I hate that damn place, they only care about the money, not the customers or employees for that matter.

There's nobody around that has the proper equipment to properly calibrate the set. The closest person/company (the last time I checked anyway) was in Morgantown. You can find them on the ISF Calibration website. The person/company in Morgantown didn't have all the necessary equipment to do a complete calibration either. Even if they did, it would be very expensive if they would even travel to Charleston. You can check their site to see who is certified...I haven't checked in a while.

Here is what I recommend. Buy yourself the AVIA Test Disc. It's great. It provides Test patterns and provides instructions how to use them to set your Contrast, Brightness, Color and Tint (Color and Tint settings don't do anything if you are using HDMI or DVI...it's for component and the other anolog connections). You can use AVI and calibrate one of the worst picture TVs in the CC store and it will look like one of the more expensive sets. However, you use Avia on the more expensive sets, and they will look much better.

CC CANNOT do calibrations. Just get yourself AVIA and you'll be extremely happy over the improvement in the picture quality of your set.

EDIT: Looks like the company in Morgantown now has a Color Analyzer. If you want a full blown calibration (will be very expensive with the travel), here is a link to their contact info:

http://www.imagingscience.com/isf_results.cfm?temp=1&Country1=none&State1=WV&dlr_status=CAL

Here is Sound Investments, INC's Website: http://www.soundinvestments.com/

OK......looks like they service a 100 Mile Radius.

I second the Avia of Video Essentials, but if you want a quick fix, check the display section of this site and see if there is a thread for your TV model. Most threads have a base calibration setting that you can copy over to your set.

Thanks guys!

I second the Avia of Video Essentials, but if you want a quick fix, check the display section of this site and see if there is a thread for your TV model. Most threads have a base calibration setting that you can copy over to your set.

Good suggestion. One thing to note to the fellow asking the question. If you use DVE or AVIA test disk, it will only be good for 'THAT' input. If your Cable/Sat/Antenna input to the TV is NOT throught he the same connections (video input as your DVD player), then the Avia will only work for that one. Following herdfan's suggestion will lead you to a nice calibration you can do on all your video inputs.

got my dtv installed today. everything went pretty smooth, except i am having problems with my 4x1 monoprice hdmi switch. i can get a signal going directly from the box to my projector but not through the switch. the switch works fine with my ps3. i think the switch is the issue. it was the first version monoprice released a few years ago. they are now up to rev 3 with hdmi 1.3b. i can get a new one for $40. i just wanted to check before i got it. where would be a good place to ask about this?

thnx

got my dtv installed today. everything went pretty smooth, except i am having problems with my 4x1 monoprice hdmi switch. i can get a signal going directly from the box to my projector but not through the switch. the switch works fine with my ps3. i think the switch is the issue. it was the first version monoprice released a few years ago. they are now up to rev 3 with hdmi 1.3b. i can get a new one for $40. i just wanted to check before i got it. where would be a good place to ask about this?

thnx

Have you tried each of the 4 HDMI inputs on the switch. As I recall when the first generation monoprice HDMI switch came out several people found that not all 4 inputs were equally compatible with certain equipment. It may not the the be answer in your case, but it's worth a try.

There's nobody around that has the proper equipment to properly calibrate the set. The closest person/company (the last time I checked anyway) was in Morgantown. You can find them on the ISF Calibration website. The person/company in Morgantown didn't have all the necessary equipment to do a complete calibration either. Even if they did, it would be very expensive if they would even travel to Charleston. You can check their site to see who is certified...I haven't checked in a while.

Here is what I recommend. Buy yourself the AVIA Test Disc. It's great. It provides Test patterns and provides instructions how to use them to set your Contrast, Brightness, Color and Tint (Color and Tint settings don't do anything if you are using HDMI or DVI...it's for component and the other anolog connections). You can use AVI and calibrate one of the worst picture TVs in the CC store and it will look like one of the more expensive sets. However, you use Avia on the more expensive sets, and they will look much better.

CC CANNOT do calibrations. Just get yourself AVIA and you'll be extremely happy over the improvement in the picture quality of your set.

EDIT: Looks like the company in Morgantown now has a Color Analyzer. If you want a full blown calibration (will be very expensive with the travel), here is a link to their contact info:

http://www.imagingscience.com/isf_results.cfm?temp=1&Country1=none&State1=WV&dlr_status=CAL

Here is Sound Investments, INC's Website: http://www.soundinvestments.com/

OK......looks like they service a 100 Mile Radius.

The owner of Sound Investments in Morgantown (Bill Arnold) is a very old acquaintance of mine (from the late 1960's when we were both young men). They are a first rate operation and sell mid and high-end audio, video and more recently appliances. Perhaps if you could find two or three forum members in the Charleston area wanting to have their HDTVs calibrated they would be willing to do them on a single trip.

Ron Jones

Have you tried each of the 4 HDMI inputs on the switch. As I recall when the first generation monoprice HDMI switch came out several people found that not all 4 inputs were equally compatible with certain equipment. It may not the the be answer in your case, but it's worth a try.

yea, i tried that. thanks for the input though!

i think i'm gonna just upgrade to an onkyo tx sr705. that will take care of my hdmi switching and give me an upgrade to hd audio.

This may not be a good spot to place a "For Sale" ad, but I've seen several folks recently talking about buying a new antenna since DirecTV seems to be dropping the ball in getting our HD locals up. I moved to a location about 6 months ago where I can get all of my HD channels via Suddenlink cable, so I've got some equipment just sitting around taking up space. I had an ad in the Ad Bulletin this week, but I thought I'd throw the info out here in case someone was interested. Here's what I have --

Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna, and a Channel Master 7777 mast-mount amp (inside, and outside equipment) all still mounted on a 10' mast. This is a really good antenna, and overcame a LOT of terrain blockage at my old house. It's listed at $50 for all. I live in Pinch, by the way. Give me a call if anyone is interested.

Jeff - (304) 539-5110

The owner of Sound Investments in Morgantown (Bill Arnold) is a very old acquaintance of mine (from the late 1960's when we were both young men). They are a first rate operation and sell mid and high-end audio, video and more recently appliances. Perhaps if you could find two or three forum members in the Charleston area wanting to have their HDTVs calibrated they would be willing to do them on a single trip.

Ron Jones

Where are they located in Morgantown. I am getting ready to build my HT and need to buy a new receiver and PJ and would rather buy local then internet due to the ease of taking it back

Where are they located in Morgantown. I am getting ready to build my HT and need to buy a new receiver and PJ and would rather buy local then internet due to the ease of taking it back

Chad Cummings? When did you move to Morgantown?? This is Jeff Warren...

Where are they located in Morgantown. I am getting ready to build my HT and need to buy a new receiver and PJ and would rather buy local then internet due to the ease of taking it back

From Interstate 79 exit onto I-68 then take the first exit (south side of Morgantown) then as you drive toward Morgantown they are perhaps 3/4 of the way down the hill on the left side (within a couple of miles of the interstate).

Ron Jones

yea, i tried that. thanks for the input though!

i think i'm gonna just upgrade to an onkyo tx sr705. that will take care of my hdmi switching and give me an upgrade to hd audio.

Onkyo should have the TX-SR706 out before long. They are already shipping the 506 and 606 models. The new models add more HDMI inputs.

This has never happened to me before, but very cool.....

As I was watching TV, I turned it on 13-1. Normally, I can't get but about 20%, if that. If I open my window, I get maybe 30% and is somewhat watchable. For those that don't know, I only have a $20 Indoor powered Phillips Antenna sitting in the windowsill of my basement as I've been waiting for D* to add Local HDs.

Last night, I was getting around 47% on 13-1 and was able to watch just fine (with window closed). Not to mention, 3-1 was at 76%, 8-1 and 11-1 were both at 100%.

I'm not sure if there was a Firmware update to the HR21 receiver that is now receiving OTA signals better, or just a weather phenomenon, but these are the numbers I received with a little antenna pointing in one direction.

Anyone know anyone local, Charleston area, that does TV calibrations?? I've read that if you get someone who knows what they are doing it can make a world of difference. I'd rather pay a local place instead of a retailer like CC, I hate that damn place, they only care about the money, not the customers or employees for that matter.

http://www.hdtvbychadb.com

This guy, Chad B does them in the Charleston area when he comes through here. He is a really nice guy and isn't too expensive. I had him calibrate an old CRT HDTV a few years back and he did an excellent job. Really knows his stuff.

He gives discounts for multiple people in the same area getting serviced the same day.

This has never happened to me before, but very cool.....

As I was watching TV, I turned it on 13-1. Normally, I can't get but about 20%, if that. If I open my window, I get maybe 30% and is somewhat watchable. For those that don't know, I only have a $20 Indoor powered Phillips Antenna sitting in the windowsill of my basement as I've been waiting for D* to add Local HDs.

Last night, I was getting around 47% on 13-1 and was able to watch just fine (with window closed). Not to mention, 3-1 was at 76%, 8-1 and 11-1 were both at 100%.

I'm not sure if there was a Firmware update to the HR21 receiver that is now receiving OTA signals better, or just a weather phenomenon, but these are the numbers I received with a little antenna pointing in one direction.


how do you have the OTA ant connected to your hr21? i just got dtv last weekend and do not see the ant input on the rec. i currently have my OTA ant connected to my pc (setup with beyond tv). i was just curious to compare the signal strength b/w the hr21 and my ati hd wonder.

One of Suddenlink's engineers here in WV says there will be 4 HD channels added in February and 4 more in June. He did not say what the channels will be, but I wish they would do it sooner.

This was posted back in early December and was correct about the 4 added in February.

Does anyone have any information about anything happing in June or what those channels may be?

I will ask and see if we will get more channels in June. Usually my source is reliable.

how do you have the OTA ant connected to your hr21? i just got dtv last weekend and do not see the ant input on the rec. i currently have my OTA ant connected to my pc (setup with beyond tv). i was just curious to compare the signal strength b/w the hr21 and my ati hd wonder.

Maybe it's the HR20. It's the one with the OTA capability. Just coax from antenna to antenna in on the HR20 (I really can't recall the model number now, I'll have to look at it)

Maybe it's the HR20. It's the one with the OTA capability. Just coax from antenna to antenna in on the HR20 (I really can't recall the model number now, I'll have to look at it)

i pulled this from howstuffworksdotcom:

"If you need to connect an over-the-air antenna to your satellite receiver, however, the HR21-700 isn't a good choice, as it only accepts input from the satellite dish. DirecTV doesn't yet offer local channels in HD in every market, making the lack of an over-the-air option a potentially big problem with this receiver. In fact, the lack of an over-the-air connector is arguably the major difference between the HR21-700 and the company's HR20-700 model."

i wonder why this feature was removed for the 21?

i i wonder why this feature was removed for the 21?

Cost. DirecTV has to pay a royalty to the group that developed the aTSC standards. This plus the cost of the tuners and given that now D* has HD locals availabel to 74% of the country, including the OTA tuners made little sense.

The AM21 add-on OTA module works great and is a good solution.

Cost. DirecTV has to pay a royalty to the group that developed the aTSC standards. This plus the cost of the tuners and given that now D* has HD locals availabel to 74% of the country, including the OTA tuners made little sense.

The AM21 add-on OTA module works great and is a good solution.

i have been researching the am21 this morning. do you know if it has a monthly lease fee? it is currently listed on dtv site for $50 with free shipping but says "lease fee $4.99"

I will ask and see if we will get more channels in June. Usually my source is reliable.

Keep us posted.

i have been researching the am21 this morning. do you know if it has a monthly lease fee?

Its not supposed to. As far as I know, it is a one-time $50 fee. I can't find where they are charging me for it on my account.

Its not supposed to. As far as I know, it is a one-time $50 fee. I can't find where they are charging me for it on my account.

i got confirmation from dtv yesterday that there is no lease fee. i ordered it for $50 with free ship and $3 tax. i'm excited to get my OTA's included into the dtv guide as well as being able to record all onto one box. now i need something else to use my htpc for (other than a media server)...

i may try splitting the signal so i will have an extra (or backup) dvr.

i got the upgrade bug and purchased the new onkyo tx sr606. i got the unit thursday. i moved up from a sr503. i had been using a first generation monoprice 5x1 hdmi spilter until a few weeks ago. when i switched to dtv, the spilter and the hr21 did not like each other. so i convinced the wife we needed a new receiver with hdmi switching. the 606 has 4 hdmi inputs and also decodes all the new hd audio codecs. this thing is sweet!

my latest setup
Epson 1080p home projector
106" elite screen
PS3 (60 gig version)
Xbox 360
DTV Hr21 HD DVR
DTV AM21 HD OTA tuner
HTPC (used as a media server and additional dvr; ATI HD Wonder and Beyond TV4)
Polk R30 fronts, CS1 center, R15 rear, and SVS 12" sub

the speakers are likely the next thing to get upgraded...

i got the upgrade bug and purchased the new onkyo tx sr606. i got the unit thursday. i moved up from a sr503. i had been using a first generation monoprice 5x1 hdmi spilter until a few weeks ago. when i switched to dtv, the spilter and the hr21 did not like each other. so i convinced the wife we needed a new receiver with hdmi switching. the 606 has 4 hdmi inputs and also decodes all the new hd audio codecs. this thing is sweet!

my latest setup
Epson 1080p home projector
106" elite screen
PS3 (60 gig version)
Xbox 360
DTV Hr21 HD DVR
DTV AM21 HD OTA tuner
HTPC (used as a media server and additional dvr; ATI HD Wonder and Beyond TV4)
Polk R30 fronts, CS1 center, R15 rear, and SVS 12" sub

the speakers are likely the next thing to get upgraded...

Wow, looks like you have quite a setup! :D What speakers are you considering. I have an Ascend 7.1 system, and I think it does very well for the price. However, I do not have a very discerning ear. I'm getting too old! :(

Oh, by the way, I finally got around to putting a Channel Master CM 7777 mast mounted preamp on my 4228 antenna, and I am receiving channel's 3 and 13 at between 75 and 80 percent, with channel's 8 and 11 at 100 percent.

Watched the Today News this morning on channel 3 and had some occasional pixelation. But, all in all, it was very watchable. Don't know why the pixelation at 75 to 80 percent??? I would have thought it would be perfect. But again, very good compared to not getting channel 3 at all. I missed both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in HD. That is kind of what lit a fire under me to install the preamp that had been sitting in my basement for the last several months.

Channel 3 has also been showing some pretty good Golf Tournaments that I have missed in HD.

I really don't like watching much in standard definition any more.... Spoiled!

Checked with Suddenlink and the rep I spoke with didn't know of any channels being added in June, bummer! Hope this is wrong because would like to have Discovery in HD.

Checked with Suddenlink and the rep I spoke with didn't know of any channels being added in June, bummer! Hope this is wrong because would like to have Discovery in HD.

I emailed them a few weeks ago asking when USA HD and Sci-Fi HD were going to be added and they said they didn't have a time frame. I have talked to reps many times and they have told me they never know when things will be added until the day before or after they actually appear ( the exception were the ones added in Feb).


Updated 6/2: I talked to a rep this morning and asked when we got the HD channels in Feb. that we were going to get more in June. They heard about it to but they didn't have any more information.

Thanks WSAZ for broadcasting the stanley cup final in HD tonight...aholes!

I think the problem with the Stanley Cup Finals game was the fact that they kept having to scroll weather alerts last night. For some reason - the tech guys on here may be able to explain it - when there is a news/weather alert scroll on the local channels, they have to switch back to SD. WSAZ is supposed to have some upgrades in the near future...so that may not be an issue for long.

The equipment needed to insert text on an HD signal is extremely expensive, and so to do the scroll they have to drop to SD. I imagine that HD overlays will become more common as prices fall.

The one place that may not change if Fox. The way the splicer is set up, I don't know if graphics like that can be placed on the HD feed by the local station.

- Trip

The equipment needed to insert text on an HD signal is extremely expensive, and so to do the scroll they have to drop to SD. I imagine that HD overlays will become more common as prices fall.

The one place that may not change if Fox. The way the splicer is set up, I don't know if graphics like that can be placed on the HD feed by the local station.

- Trip

WVAH and WCHS can scroll warnings without interrupting the HD feed, I don't know about showing graphics like the state colored differently for warnings, I have never seen that.

WSAZ and WOWK during their 10:00 shows they show pop-ups for their news coming up next and they have to switch to the SD feed then when its done back to the HD feed.

Of course WOWK still doesn't do Dolby Digital 5.1 yet.

Has anyone using OTA noticed a drop in signal strength? Last night I went to watch the game on 8-1 and I had no signal. My meter on my HR20 indicated 20-23%. The same for 11-1. And 3-1 and 13-1 were receivable, but strengths were way down.

I just watched both 8-1 and 11-1 this past week, so I was wondering if anything happened.

On a side note, DirecTV11 is in its testing slot and should be good to go by the end of the month. So here is hoping our locals come on line soon.

It doesn't look like Suddenlink will be getting new HD stations this month.

Has anyone using OTA noticed a drop in signal strength? Last night I went to watch the game on 8-1 and I had no signal. My meter on my HR20 indicated 20-23%. The same for 11-1. And 3-1 and 13-1 were receivable, but strengths were way down.

I just watched both 8-1 and 11-1 this past week, so I was wondering if anything happened.

On a side note, DirecTV11 is in its testing slot and should be good to go by the end of the month. So here is hoping our locals come on line soon.

My basement flooded a few weeks back due to a split in a water hose pipe, so I haven't been downstairs watching any HD for a while. Are you still receiving the low signal strength? I'll go down today and turn mine on to see what it's getting.

Regarding D11.....that's good news. I hope it's not wishful thinking that D* will have our Locals by the end of the year.

I got it fixed. I meant to come back and post but I forgot.:o

The guy that was up in my attic working the A/C must have unplugged my amplifier. Plugging it back in fixed the problem.

This is the second time this has happened. Maybe I need to hardwire it in.

question for the dtv guys. if/when we finally get locals in HD, will my am21 and OTA be useless? i would like to keep my ota stuff since it is the highest possible quality. i was just wondering if i could still use the am21 when the locals are up.

Sure can. Many people are using it for HD locals that are not up on the satellite like PBS-HD or CW-HD.

how does it affect the guide? my current OTA channels are x.1. dtv hd channels are also x.1. if my OTA wsaz is 3.1, what would the dtv hd channel show?

Good question, I guess that it would show them both. To prevent confusion you could not "add" the dtv locals to your Favorites.

how does it affect the guide? my current OTA channels are x.1. dtv hd channels are also x.1. if my OTA wsaz is 3.1, what would the dtv hd channel show?

I guess that it would show them both.

The way it currently works for those who have HD LIL is:

3 HD
3 SD
3-1
3-2

If you chose to "Hide SD Duplicates", the you would only see the HD version of 3. So it would look exactly as it does now, except 3 would be the HD version.

The way it currently works for those who have HD LIL is:

3 HD
3 SD
3-1
3-2

If you chose to "Hide SD Duplicates", the you would only see the HD version of 3. So it would look exactly as it does now, except 3 would be the HD version.

ahh, that makes sense. thank you sir!

Two and Half Men on Fox 11 at 7:30 p.m. was in HD. That's first syndicated program I have noticed in the area in HD. Anyone know of others?

Talked to a Suddenlink rep when I canceled HBO/Cinemax (tried the 3-month $5/month deal and found out I don't watch anywhere close to enough of those channels to justify $15/month). He had heard about the HD channels that we were suppose to get in June back in Feb. He thinks negotiations are taking longer then planned. He said they could come this month but they should come soon and we shouldn't have to wait anywhere close to the 11 months we did last time. He knew of 2 that we were going to get but couldn't remember their names at the moment and I didn't have time for him to see if he could remember or name some to try to jog his memory, he does expect more than 2 to appear when they are added.

If we don't see any by the 7/15 I wouldn't expect them this month.


Suddenlink Adds HDTV Channels
The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 07/03/2008 01:15:48 AM PDT



Suddenlink this week announced it will add seven high-definition channels to its existing HD lineup in the Eureka area, effective July 16.

FOX 29 KBVU in HD will be available via Suddenlink as an “HD Broadcast” channel, which can be viewed without a Suddenlink HD receiver or cable card if customers have HD televisions sets with a built-in QAM tuner.

TBS HD, USA HD, FX HD, Travel HD and Sci-Fi HD will be added to Suddenlink's “HD Basic” tier of service, which already includes ESPN HD, ESPN HD2 and TNT HD.

History HD will be added to the “HD Plus” Tier that includes HD Theater, HD Net, HD Net Movies, Universal HD, HGTV HD, Food HD, A&E HD, and National Geographic HD. Two non-HD channels -- We TV and Chiller -- will also be added to Suddenlink's Digital Variety Tier.

Of the channels we get they don't have Cinemax HD, MHD, or any broadcast HD. They will get TBS HD and History HD that we already have and their local Fox station in HD.

We don't have Universal HD which I wish they would add. If we get an update this month we will probably get USA HD, Sci-Fi HD, FX HD, and Travel HD, as these are the first time that those channels will appear in any Suddenlink system they will most likely appear on all systems that have room for them as its easier to negotiate for the whole system then each individual market.

Sci-Fi, and USA were my 2 most wanted and FX was in my top 5, Travel doesn't appeal to me. This leaves me with about 4 more I really really want: Spike, the 3 Disney networks (ABC Family, Disney, and Toon Disney) next on my list would be Discovery.

I would have wanted Cartoon Network HD right after Sci-Fi, and USA, However because everything is stretched (distorted picture) on that channel I would never watch it and it would be a waste of space thus making it almost at the bottom of the list of all HD channels. I like what is on Turner network like TNT and TBS but any 4:3 show they stretch which makes them unwatchable I would watch Angel and Charmed on TNT and Saved By the Bell on TBS but since the picture is distorted, I don't watch them unless its an episode I really like and then I only watch it on the analog channel.

The 4 new HD channels and the SD Chiller have been added here:

Suddenlink adds more HDTV channels
Written by Staff Reports
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Suddenlink’s recently completed 957-mile West Texas fiber ring is helping bring more high-definition television (HDTV) programming to area communities. Suddenlink today announced it has added four more HD channels in its West Texas markets: FX HD, USA HD, Sci Fi HD, and Travel Channel HD.
Suddenlink also announced it has added Chiller to its digital Variety Tier.
Last month, upon announcing completion of the fiber ring, the company announced it had added three other HD channels: TBS HD, MHD, and History Channel HD. The latest HD channel additions have been launched in Suddenlink cable systems in the Texas markets of Abilene, Amarillo, Andrews, Big Spring, Floydada, Lubbock, Midland, Plainview, San Angelo, Snyder and Sweetwater - as well as Clovis, N.M.
The newly added HD channels, along with existing HD channels and HD programming that will be available via Suddenlink video on demand services coming later this year, will offer hundreds of hours of HD programming, a volume expected to match or surpass competitive offerings.
HDTV offers a widescreen format, similar to a movie theater, with distinctly sharper and clearer images than standard TV. It also provides better sound quality. Not all networks or stations offer HD programming.
All of the most recent channel adds - USA HD, FX HD, Travel Channel HD and Sci Fi HD - are featured on Suddenlink’s “HD Basic” tier of service, which is available free to customers who lease the equipment required to enable HD viewing. (Suddenlink customers must have an HD television set connected to a Suddenlink HD receiver, or another HD receiver with a Suddenlink cable card, in order to view “HD Basic” channels.)
For more information, area residents may call Suddenlink toll-free at 1-866-269-4386, visit local Suddenlink offices, or visit Suddenlink’s Web site www.Suddenlink.com and enter their zip code for updated channel lineups and other information.

Looking good for us. I just hope they are up by July 10 because Burn Notice starts and then Stargate: Atlantis the next day and Psych the week after.

Just curious, I have Dish right now, but if I wanted to get my locals in HD through Suddenlink, what is the cheapest plan to do this. I dont want anything else but my locals in HD...obviously, I'll have to get a package, but whats the cheapest HD package. MY OTA only gets ABC perfectly, CBS is hit and miss depending on the weather, and 80% of the time, its a miss....NBC and FOX are usually good 70% of the time, except for when its windy or rainy....any help is appreciated.

So Suddenlink is telling me that if I want HD, I must get their DVR and extended basic with HD added on. Why in the hell do I have to have the DVR?? Do they not have a standard HD receiver? Makes no sense at all, now I remember why I left cable....so many stupid stipulations and unnecessary add-ons

Suddenlink is trying to up-sell you. I have the Scientific Atlanta 3250 HD box and it is all I need or want. They want you to take extended basic because ESPN, ESPN2, TNT and TBS HD are included in the basic HD package. They may be out of these boxes and that may be why the DVR is being pushed. The locals also include PBS HD which I really like. Can't help with price because am taking HD Plus pack as well as HBO/Cinemax and Starz which gives me all but one available HD channel.

how many total do you get?

Currently, Suddenlink in Charleston has 22 HD channels....4 of which are pay channels. (HBO, Cinemax, Starz, and Showtime)

I had a problem with VOD and they sent it to their marketing department and they called me so I could explain the problem, they have to call the company that does VOD for Suddenlink.

Then I asked about them adding any new HD channels, basically the answer I got was they currently do not have the room to add any more HD channels and are upgrading everything to make room and once that is complete there should be plenty of room to add many channels. She said it will take a while, when I asked how long she said she didn't know and I asked about July and August and she said don't expect them that soon, on the upside she didn't say don't expect any more for the rest of the year.

So Suddenlink is telling me that if I want HD, I must get their DVR and extended basic with HD added on. Why in the hell do I have to have the DVR?? Do they not have a standard HD receiver? Makes no sense at all, now I remember why I left cable....so many stupid stipulations and unnecessary add-ons

I couldn't live without a DVR now. Ok...I know that's a little extreme, but since we've went with DVR a few years back, we'd be hard pressed to use anything but.

I have DVR with dish...just dont need it with suddenlink

I have DVR with dish...just dont need it with suddenlink

Oh...ok.....so why two services?

I was wanting my locals in HD...my OTA is really bad about picking up CBS, and if I could get Suddenlink for $30 or so a month, I'd drop my Dish to an HD only package which is about half of what im paying now....

I was wanting my locals in HD...my OTA is really bad about picking up CBS, and if I could get Suddenlink for $30 or so a month, I'd drop my Dish to an HD only package which is about half of what im paying now....


Makes sense. I also have problems with CBS via the antenna. I wish that Suddenlink in Sissonville would begin carrying HD. It's hard to tell WHEN D* will carry our Locals after D11 is in operation around September.

If they do, im prolly going to switch to them, even though I hate their channel guide and how random everything is.

I was wanting my locals in HD...my OTA is really bad about picking up CBS, and if I could get Suddenlink for $30 or so a month, I'd drop my Dish to an HD only package which is about half of what im paying now....

I definitely know the feeling, WOWK is the bane of anyone's existence trying to pick up HD OTA around here. But it still seems really strange to me to subscribe to two different services to get around it. Aren't there any more upgrades you could make to your OTA setup to fix the problem? A new antenna or pre-amp would certainly be cheaper. The good news is that WOWK-HD is moving to the VHF spectrum in February which should help a lot with our terrain. Then again by that time Dish might have locals for our area anyway. After making some upgrades to my OTA setup I only lose signal on 13 during bad storms, so I'm willing to wait a little while for those things to happen.

how's your setup??? what kind of upgrades have you made?

Well, considering I was using an indoor antenna when I first got my HDTV there was a lot to be done. The first step was moving to a roof antenna. I'm currently using a typical medium sized directional VHF/UHF antenna on the roof.
One of these things:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/1070/8214501401up7.jpg
I've seen some larger ones in the neighbourhood though that might do even better. A lot of people on the forums say good things about the Channel Master 4228 (http://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-4228-Long-range-outdoor/dp/B000FVVKQM) for UHF reception. It's pretty affordable comparatively too, so if you don't currently have a very big antenna you may consider it. I'm also using a standard hi-gain signal amplifier from Radio Shack. You can find better ones online though. If you don't have one currently go purchase one. Signal strength was like night and day for me after attaching the amp. That's especially important if you have a lot of cable between your antenna and tv. That's the other thing I did recently. I ditched the 100ft thin little coax cable that came with the antenna and got some well shielded cable that was just as long as I needed, about 50ft. This gave me noticeable improvement as well. You might be surprised how much your signal can be improved just by cutting some slack out of the cable.

So there are always several little areas for improvement in your setup. As long as you don't live too awful far out in the hills, there isn't really any reason you shouldn't be be able to pick up at least the big four if you get serious enough with your setup. Check out http://www.antennaweb.org (http://www.antennaweb.org/) if you'd like a little help deciding just how much you need. The one problem I still have though is antenna placing, since I have to aim it straight for WOWK and accept whatever signal I get on the others. I have a real small area to keep it aimed at, and if a strong wind blows it off a little I have to go up and correct it to keep good signal.

Oh, but in other good news I was just looking it up and it appears that the other two problems for reception in our area, PBS and the CW, are being addressed. All the local PBS stations have applied to increase their power somewhat after the transition so I may finally be able to pick up PBS-HD. And it appears WQCW is planning to finally move it's main tower to Ona with the other stations', so maybe soon people who don't live in Portsmouth will actually be able to pick it up.

A lot of people on the forums say good things about the Channel Master 4228 (http://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-4228-Long-range-outdoor/dp/B000FVVKQM) for UHF reception.
That is what I am using to get 3/13/33 from about 16 miles away. I get good signal on all 3. I am about 3 miles away from 8/11 and am using a similar DB4.

I am combining the two antennas with a simple splitter then into a CM 7777 amplifier and the signal is then split 3 ways with two of the legs split again at the TV. (One feed to an HR20, the other directly to the TV).

I get all channels with very good signal. (except when the amp gets unplugged:()

D11 should be finished testing soon and some reports indicate it may be online before the Olympics. I don't know if E* will ever carry our locals as they have announced or carry 83 markets and Charleston is not one even though the DMA rank is 65.

Hopefully D* will make an announcement once D11 goes live.

I'm in Mount Hope (near Beckley) and have Dish. I "moved" to Atl. for locals, but now I'm considering Directv with the announcement of more HD coming in.

I may "move" to Charleston if they light up the HD locals there, but I'll have to "move" there anyways to be able to get locals through Directv.

I am about 5 miles away from WOAY, and have an indoor antenna that cuts in and out with it.
If I went with an outdoor antenna, what would I be able to get possibly?

Boeing Delivers 4th High-Definition TV Satellite to DIRECTV

ST. LOUIS, July 21, 2008 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that DIRECTV Inc. has taken on-orbit delivery of the DIRECTV 11 satellite, which will continue to expand DIRECTV's industry-leading lineup of high-definition television channels and services to millions of households in the United States.

Sea Launch launched DIRECTV 11 March 19 on a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket from the launch services company's equatorial launch site in the Pacific Ocean. (Boeing is a 40 percent partner in Sea Launch.) The newest spacecraft in DIRECTV's fleet will begin transmitting additional national high-definition signals for the nation's leading satellite TV provider, and expand DIRECTV's HD platform to up to 150 national channels and local HD channels in well over 100 markets by this fall.

"The Boeing and DIRECTV teams worked together to ensure that this satellite and its systems are ready to begin broadcasting television programs in high definition into homes throughout the United States," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "The spacecraft was handed over eight days ahead of schedule, and we are pleased to have a role in assisting DIRECTV with the expansion of their service to customers."

DIRECTV 11 is the fourth Ka-band Boeing 702 satellite built for DIRECTV at Boeing's satellite manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif. The facility encompasses approximately 1 million square feet and is the largest state-of-the-art dedicated satellite factory in the world

Hello all,

First of all I currently have cable but it's very poor and the company doesn't seem very quick to fix the outages. Therefore I wanted a backup. I applied for the coupon and recently received it, quickly went out purchased a converter, hooked it up to an old antenna left over from the good ole days and was surprised by the picture on WSAZ. So I decided to purchase a good antenna,the DB8, very similar to the Channel Master 4228. In my opinion these antennas are the BEST for reception. I currently get WSAZ 3, 3.1, WOWK 13,13.1, PBS 42 (all 3). I get 8.1, 11.1 & 30.1 in the mornings sometimes. Does anyone know why only in the mornings? Is the signal bouncing off fog/clouds? I have ordered the Channel Master 7778 pre-amp in hopes that will pull these stations in. Will it? Also, I have grounded the antenna mast to a driven rod. The pre-amp says it has "Full lightning and surge protection". Should I also ground the coax cable? I live 15 miles northeast of Portsmouth in South Webster, According to a digital TV sites, i'm 36 miles from the Huntington towers and 56 miles from the Channel 8 & 11 towers.

Okay then, I'll give some input on these antenna questions.

I'm in Mount Hope (near Beckley) and have Dish. I "moved" to Atl. for locals, but now I'm considering Directv with the announcement of more HD coming in.

I may "move" to Charleston if they light up the HD locals there, but I'll have to "move" there anyways to be able to get locals through Directv.

I am about 5 miles away from WOAY, and have an indoor antenna that cuts in and out with it.
If I went with an outdoor antenna, what would I be able to get possibly?

First I'll default to http://www.antennaweb.org/ You can put in your exact address there and they'll give you a real good (but usually conservative) estimate of what you should be able to pick up and what setup you'll need to get it. In your area, what you can get is going to be largely dependant on your elevation. If your very deep in a valley, of course your reception is going to suffer. Getting an outdoor antenna, and more importantly a pre-amp, should help out a lot. You should most definitely be able to get WOAY consistently. And a quick search I did suggests you should probably get WVNS 59 (CBS) out of Lewisburg and WVVA 6 (NBC) out of Bluefield, in addition to a few different local PBS stations. It also suggests you're probably in range for some Roanoke, VA stations if you really get serious with your setup. But I would also bet that if you're high enough up on the mountain, you shouldn't have much trouble picking up WVAH 11 (Fox) and WCHS 8 (ABC) out of Charleston. I'm less optimistic about you picking up the other two because their transmitters are a good bit farther. It's not out of the question though.

Hello all,

First of all I currently have cable but it's very poor and the company doesn't seem very quick to fix the outages. Therefore I wanted a backup. I applied for the coupon and recently received it, quickly went out purchased a converter, hooked it up to an old antenna left over from the good ole days and was surprised by the picture on WSAZ. So I decided to purchase a good antenna,the DB8, very similar to the Channel Master 4228. In my opinion these antennas are the BEST for reception. I currently get WSAZ 3, 3.1, WOWK 13,13.1, PBS 42 (all 3). I get 8.1, 11.1 & 30.1 in the mornings sometimes. Does anyone know why only in the mornings? Is the signal bouncing off fog/clouds? I have ordered the Channel Master 7778 pre-amp in hopes that will pull these stations in. Will it? Also, I have grounded the antenna mast to a driven rod. The pre-amp says it has "Full lightning and surge protection". Should I also ground the coax cable? I live 15 miles northeast of Portsmouth in South Webster, According to a digital TV sites, i'm 36 miles from the Huntington towers and 56 miles from the Channel 8 & 11 towers.

That sounds like very good reception to me for no pre-amp at all, and yes I'll guarantee the pre-amp will help a lot. Come back and post when it comes in, I'd like to hear the improvement. You're lucky to be able to pick up 30.1, pretty much no one else in the area can. Believe me I've tried +_+. But considering how close you live to it I'm surprised it's one of the ones you're having trouble with as well. Remember that its transmitter is in Portsmouth, 3 & 13 are in Ona and 8 & 11 are in St. Albans, so maybe you can adjust it a little better. I don't know enough to tell you why mornings are better, but I can tell it's not at all uncommon. Time of day and weather conditions really can have a massive effect on your reception. The pre-amp should boost your signal enough to at least keep hold of the channels.

Thanks Anifan... I went to that site earlier, and still am having trouble.. Choosing the right antenna is my prob... I probably need an omnidirectional antenna with a preamp... And I need a powerful one as you could see. Any suggestions on something you might have used?

D11 is alive. I was getting signals in the 90's (it's 99c) for all 14 transponders on my HR20-700 - well until the latest storm arrived from the SW a few minutes ago.

Thanks Anifan... I went to that site earlier, and still am having trouble.. Choosing the right antenna is my prob... I probably need an omnidirectional antenna with a preamp... And I need a powerful one as you could see. Any suggestions on something you might have used?

I would actually recommend you avoid omnidirectional, you're almost sure to be disappointed in the quality of signal you get as far out as you are. But you're definitely right that direction is going to be a problem as well. What might work really well in your situation is an antenna rotator, so you can adjust the direction of your antenna from inside. They're not necessarily cheap, I see a lot of them in the $90 range but if you shop around I've seen some as low as $40. It sounds like you might be able to get really good results with the ol' Channel Master 4228 antenna and 7777 pre-amp if you combine it with a rotator. I know that sounds like an awful lot of equipment and money, but it will yield the best results and you could possibly even come away with a wider selection of channels than we get up here.

Now something else you might decide to try before you go into all that; you can find some indoor antennas at Walmart etc. with some pretty serious amplifiers in them. Some labelled at 50-55dB which sounds suspicious to me, but they're powerful nonetheless. The strongest ones run right about $30. I actually tried one of those when I first got my HDTV. Now it was completely unreliable inside my living room and I knew right away I would need an outdoor antenna, but I was able to experiment with it while I had it. I hooked up some pretty long cable to it and took it just out the window to my backyard. From there I was able to play with it a lot and I actually picked up every channel I can currently receive on my roof antenna. Albeit with low signal and it wasn't at all a setup I could use permanently. But it still worked wonderfully at telling me what signals I was likely to pick up and the directions they were coming from. It helped a lot later when I was figuring out where and how to set up my big antenna. You might consider picking up one of those fancy little antennas and getting ridiculous with it like I did if you just want a better idea of what to expect. And if you get it at Walmart I guarantee they'll let you take it back after you've had a few days to experiment with it.

Thanks for the input, i'll post the improvements when I get the pre-amp & install it. As far as 30.1, If I rotate my antenna towards Portsmouth, it comes in great. But then no West Virgina stations, this will change I think when WQCW moves it's broadcast tower to West Virginia and ups the power ( I think they are going to do this ). So then I will get all the major locals. WPBO 42 also from Portsmouth comes in as strong as WSAZ/WOWK even though antenna is pointed towards Huntington. So if the pre-amp helps with the Charleston stations, i'll be happy :).

What might work really well in your situation is an antenna rotator, so you can adjust the direction of your antenna from inside.

Rotators won't work with DRV's.:(

I have had success using a plain old splitter and combining and 4228 and a DB4 and amplifying both. I get 90+ signals on all 5 nets with DirecTV HR20's. I know they say your should use special combiners, but combining with a splitter is working for me.

Do any (all) of our local HD broadcasters support DD 5.1 Surround Sound yet? I never really hooked up my tuner to the PJ in the HT room, and didn't have surround sound on the other TV, but am moving forward with one now.

Do any (all) of our local HD broadcasters support DD 5.1 Surround Sound yet? I never really hooked up my tuner to the PJ in the HT room, and didn't have surround sound on the other TV, but am moving forward with one now.

I don't know about syndicated programs but everyone but our CBS (WOWK) does Dolby Digital, well and The CW (WQCW) since they do not have an HD station.

WOW! Who did we piss off?

http://dtv.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=324647

121 markets and Charleston-Huntington at 65 doesn't make the cut.:(

WOW! Who did we piss off?

http://dtv.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=324647

121 markets and Charleston-Huntington at 65 doesn't make the cut.:(


I just saw the list on the HDTV Programming thread. Doesn't surprise me. WV is the Garbage dump of the US, so another year with no locals in HD on D*. I've been telling everyone "It may not be this Fall, but definitely by the end of the year". Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like I may have to invest in a good antenna now.

Is it the local stations that are saying no, or does WV just suck.

We just suck. Three of the affiliates are part of a larger ownership group with blanket agreements. The other, WOWK, has stated in the past they had agreements in place.

It seems we have low 1) DirecTV penetration and 2)of those DirecTV subs we do have, there is a low HD penetration.:( Plus cable has had the HD locals for a while.

If anyone recalls, we were way down the list for SD locals as well.

WOW! Who did we piss off?

http://dtv.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=324647

121 markets and Charleston-Huntington at 65 doesn't make the cut.:(

Well phooey!! (or some word that starts with the "ph" sound).

I've gotten the NY DNS stations except for ABC for several years. I've put off putting up an outside high gain antenna to see if I can somehow pull in WCHS because I keep figuring "it can't be much longer". If you guys want to buy the antenna and mast and put up the antenna for me I'm sure D* will add the Charleston/Huntington stations the next day!!

It seems we have low 1) DirecTV penetration and 2)of those DirecTV subs we do have, there is a low HD penetration.:( Plus cable has had the HD locals for a while.

That sounds weird to me because I always thought we had a relatively high number of satellite subscribers. Rather, it's cable that's always had trouble expanding very far. I know an awful lot of people on DirecTV or Dish simply because they can't get cable where they live. I would have thought we would be of higher concern for that reason, but apparently I'm wrong :(.

At least my OTA works well. And to those of you considering whether it's worth it to pay for an antenna, I actually didn't pay for mine. A lot of the antennas you see on people's roofs around the area aren't really being used. Most people seem to have moved on getting their locals from cable or satellite (especially since the DTV transition commercials have told them to) but they haven't yet gone the HD route to consider using an antenna again. I got my antenna off my brother who just considered it a piece of junk on his roof and was happy to be rid of it. If you have a relative like that, it's definitely worth asking. Or if you're courageous enough you might go bug your neighbours with antennas :p. You're probably not going to come away with one of the nice antennas recommended here, but you could still get an adequate one for free. Or at the very least sold to you for next to nothing.

That sounds weird to me because I always thought we had a relatively high number of satellite subscribers.

DirecTV got whacked back in 02 when the launch of 7S was delayed by 9 months. This let E* get a leg up as they got locals right before Christmas that year and D* didn't get them until the following June.

And looking around, I do see lots of dishes, but very few of the newer 5 LNB dishes needed for HD programming.:(

Well got the pre-amp installed last night. It doubled the signal strength on all the stations. So if any one cares to know, this is what i'm able to get OTA in good ole South Webster, Ohio:

WSAZ 3.1, 3.2
WOWK 13.1, 13.2
WCHS 8.1
WVAH 11.1 Still not real good signals on WCHS/WVAH but better, I think it's trees, where did I put that ax?
WQCW 30.1 Have to turn antenna toward Porstmouth
WPBO 42.1, 42.2, 42.3
WKAS (KET) 25.1, 25.2, 25.3, 25.4 Have to turn antenna toward Ashland. This is a new one & i'm not real familar with it.

My next project is to help my brother with his antenna. He lives about half a mile from me but only gets WSAZ & WBPO. With a lot of drop outs.:)

DirecTV got whacked back in 02 when the launch of 7S was delayed by 9 months. This let E* get a leg up as they got locals right before Christmas that year and D* didn't get them until the following June.

And looking around, I do see lots of dishes, but very few of the newer 5 LNB dishes needed for HD programming.:(

Sad thing is, most those non-5LNB dishes are connected to nice Plasma and LCD HD sets because of the ignorance in this area regarding HD. Our only choices are basically Circuit City and Sears. Sorry, but those folks don't know what they are talking about. Too bad we don't have some nice HT stores that could educate more buyers. They buy these $2K sets and hook them up to analog cable or normal E*/D*.

Speaking of CC. I was in there the other day listening to a Salesman tell a Customer (who just purchased an HD set) that the only way he can get a picture was through the $99 Monster Cable HDMI cable. The man said he saw one at Walmart for less, and the guy at CC said "Sure, you can buy a cheaper one, but your picture won't look as good". :rolleyes::o:(

What kind of pre-amp are most of you using and how hard/easy are they to install? I have an indoor antenna and I can get WSAZ, WCHS and WVAH all the time, but hardly ever get WOWK...would that help?

They buy these $2K sets and hook them up to analog cable or normal E*/D*.

And will argue with you that they have HD.:eek:

What kind of pre-amp are most of you using and how hard/easy are they to install?

I am using a Channel Master CM7777. This is the UHF/VHF model The CM7775 is VHF only.

They are very easy to install. Coax from antenna to amp, amp to power supply, power supply to TV. Most are made with the amp module weather proof so it can be outside with the antenna if needed. And the power supply has about a 6' cord, so it needs to be near an outlet.

I used a Channel Master 7778. Got it thru Amazon.com. From what i've read, these are the best. But sound like you may be able just to put up a small outside antenna that would bring in WOWK. Below are a couple of sites that might be of help:

http://www.tvfool.com/ tells what stations are available when type in address.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ a great site for info. on antennas and related items.

Hi, I live in Charleston, WV and currently have cable thru Suddenlink. I am getting ready to move and want to switch to one of the all HD packages thru Dish Network. I was wondering what kind of antenna/pre-amp I might need to get the the four major networks in HD. The home I am moving to is up at the top of Greenbrier Street in a relatively high location. Thanks for your help.

Look and take this poll tomorrow:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1705214&postcount=11

Yeah...its sad when Dothan AL beats our market...

I am still hoping something pans out for a suprise release before years end. We need to ban together, get our D friends and family subs to start a massive calling/ letter/ email campaign. just a thought. :(

Look and take this poll tomorrow:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1705214&postcount=11

Is the poll on the WCHS website? I didn't see it. Of course that page is so cluttered I probably missed it.

Is the poll on the WCHS website? I didn't see it. Of course that page is so cluttered I probably missed it.

I didn't see it either.

I guess he didn't get it up. I hope he does.

One note, it seems that a good majority of the smaller DMA's that are getting HD locals via DirecTV are because they currently have their SD locals on the 72.5 satellite that D* has to relinguish at some point in the future.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=134673

I just moved to a new location and I am using a small indoor amplified antenna I bought at WalMart a few years ago. I can pick up 6 digital channels with no problems. WCHS-DT 8, WVAH-DT 11, Several ION channels, Qubo, and some religious station. I can pick up the analog versions of WSAZ, WCHS & WVAH. The analog version of WSAZ comes in better than the other two however I can't pick up the digital version of it. Why is it I can't get WSAZ-DT? I am going to Radio Shack and try to buy a more powerful antenna and see what I can get but thought I would pose the question to the group here. Also, any chance I can pick up WOWK? I'm not getting anything but static there.
Thanks,
Jason

I just moved to a new location and I am using a small indoor amplified antenna I bought at WalMart a few years ago. I can pick up 6 digital channels with no problems. WCHS-DT 8, WVAH-DT 11, Several ION channels, Qubo, and some religious station. I can pick up the analog versions of WSAZ, WCHS & WVAH. The analog version of WSAZ comes in better than the other two however I can't pick up the digital version of it. Why is it I can't get WSAZ-DT? I am going to Radio Shack and try to buy a more powerful antenna and see what I can get but thought I would pose the question to the group here. Also, any chance I can pick up WOWK? I'm not getting anything but static there.
Thanks,
Jason
You didn't mention where you live so I can't give you much advice. But most people seem to need a good outdoor antenna with an amplifier to get all four channels in this area. I have had success with those highly amplified indoor antennas...just not when they're actually sitting on the tv stand. You need to get them on the side of the house closest the transmitter, and even near a window if possible. WSAZ and WOWK are just north of Ona and WCHS and WVAH are around St. Albans, to give you a general idea. if you can find a way to get the indoor antenna you have to work, great. Otherwise, get ready to invest in an outdoor antenna.

And it's not uncommon for the analog signal to be great and the digital signal to be very poor. They usually broadcast both at very different powers so don't expect there to be any correlation between the two other than direction. And yes, picking up WOWK isn't easy, good luck!

You didn't mention where you live so I can't give you much advice. But most people seem to need a good outdoor antenna with an amplifier to get all four channels in this area. I have had success with those highly amplified indoor antennas...just not when they're actually sitting on the tv stand. You need to get them on the side of the house closest the transmitter, and even near a window if possible. WSAZ and WOWK are just north of Ona and WCHS and WVAH are around St. Albans, to give you a general idea. if you can find a way to get the indoor antenna you have to work, great. Otherwise, get ready to invest in an outdoor antenna.

And it's not uncommon for the analog signal to be great and the digital signal to be very poor. They usually broadcast both at very different powers so don't expect there to be any correlation between the two other than direction. And yes, picking up WOWK isn't easy, good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I live in Charleston near the top of Greenbrier Street. There is an old outdoor antenna in the back yard. I have tried it without an amplifier and it does worse than the little indoor antenna I have. I guess I need to buy an amplifier for it and see how it does.

Thanks for the advice. I live in Charleston near the top of Greenbrier Street. There is an old outdoor antenna in the back yard. I have tried it without an amplifier and it does worse than the little indoor antenna I have. I guess I need to buy an amplifier for it and see how it does.

Is that old antenna a UHF antenna, and even so, you may still need the amplifier.

Thanks for the advice. I live in Charleston near the top of Greenbrier Street. There is an old outdoor antenna in the back yard. I have tried it without an amplifier and it does worse than the little indoor antenna I have. I guess I need to buy an amplifier for it and see how it does.

Well in that case you probably should be able to get WSAZ and WOWK fine with the proper equipment. They're also both in more or less the same direction from you as the other two stations, just farther. So it sounds like you just need more power. It also sounds you may be fairly close to the airport which can be problematic in some cases. If your indoor antenna is going to work, it's going to work best in roughly the far northwestern corner of you house. If you have lots of cable on hand you may play around with that idea. But if you do in fact have a decent UHF/VHF antenna outside already, your best results will probably be with it. And yes, don't underestimate the use of a preamp. My outdoor antenna gets me excellent signal on all channels, but without the preamp it's almost worthless, not even getting all channels. Most of what's happening there is the length of cable between antenna and tv is too long and you need the amplifier just to take advantage of the antenna.

WQCW Portsmouth Channel 30
Did WQCW start broadcasting stronger from their West Virginia tower last night? It came in very strong for me. To get it before I would have to turn my antenna back to Portsmouth away from all West Virginia stations. But I also lost WCHS channel 8 last night, very little signal strength for me now. Any relationship between WQCW & WCHS that would cause this?

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try to get a preamp hopefully tomorrow. FYI, I had Dish Network's Turbo HD installed today and while the installer was here I asked him if he knew when we were going to get our HD locals and he said that they would be available in September. He said everybody will have to get a new dish to receive them when they become available because of the satellite they will be coming from. I hope he's right and we do get them in September. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Anyone in the area using OTA with a digital receiver hooked to an XP or XP MCE computer? If you are and have a few minutes to help me out, send me a PM. I'd be most appreciative. =)

Thanks!

- Trip

That would be awesome, but dont hold your breathe.

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try to get a preamp hopefully tomorrow. FYI, I had Dish Network's Turbo HD installed today and while the installer was here I asked him if he knew when we were going to get our HD locals and he said that they would be available in September. He said everybody will have to get a new dish to receive them when they become available because of the satellite they will be coming from. I hope he's right and we do get them in September. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Not that I dont believe you or what the installer said, but I called Dish just now and they didnt have any info of our locals going HD anytime soon, but did say they would be on Feb. 1, 2009. I honestly dont think she knew what she was talking about, I think I confused her with the HD part and she is thinking of the Digital transition...I hope your installer is right, its almost Football time and I want to get CBS in HD 24/7....not on just a clear, non-windy day.

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try to get a preamp hopefully tomorrow. FYI, I had Dish Network's Turbo HD installed today and while the installer was here I asked him if he knew when we were going to get our HD locals and he said that they would be available in September. He said everybody will have to get a new dish to receive them when they become available because of the satellite they will be coming from. I hope he's right and we do get them in September. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try to get a preamp hopefully tomorrow. FYI, I had Dish Network's Turbo HD installed today and while the installer was here I asked him if he knew when we were going to get our HD locals and he said that they would be available in September. He said everybody will have to get a new dish to receive them when they become available because of the satellite they will be coming from. I hope he's right and we do get them in September. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Hmmm, it sounds like he might be confused. Not unlikely considering the installers are most often third party companies not actually part of Dish. From their press releases so far it doesn't seem at all likely we'll get our locals in HD this year. My best guess on the earliest we might see them would be Q2 or more likely by Q3 of 2009. I would be immensely disappointed if they waited beyond that. I also have trouble believing we'll need a new dish, wouldn't that mean they'd have to be moving our locals from 129 to 61.5? That just sounds like a strange unnecessary move to me.

I do remember seeing a list of when Dish would switch to using the digital feed of the local channels for their SD channels. Our market was set for sometime in September so maybe that's what he was thinking about. That doesn't mean we'll be able to get our locals in HD, but the SD locals will be center-cut version of the digital feed after then.

Now that D* has announced the remaining HD Local channels they are adding this year, with Charleston not being one of them, I'm contemplating the installation of a real antenna. Most likely the DB4 or DB8 with a Pre-Amp.

However, here is my dilema. The DB4 and DB8 are UHF antennas, which is fine for now. I do know that many locals around the country will be applying for (or have applied for) VHF channels after the Digital Transition happens next year.

Do we know if our Locals will be staying with UHF, or will they be going to VHF? If VHF, then this will change my mind on getting the DB4 or DB8.

Only WOWK-DT will be reverting from channel 47 to channel 13. The rest will remain on UHF.

- Trip

Yes, WOWK will be going back to 13. But isn't it also true that antennas like a DB8 do quite well with VHF in the the high range, such as 13? Has anyone done much comparison of how well it performs compared to a normal VHF antenna? I'm curious if in fact that would make it just as good after they switch. It does appear that even if more stations go back VHF in the future they're unlikely to use channels lower than 7 because of problems broadcasting a digital signal in the lower range. So then would the DB8 always be sufficient regardless?

Yes, the DB4/8 and CM 4221/4228 do just fine in the VHF 10-13 range.

Great...thanks guys.

Not sure who else complained but it seems WSAZ has seen the light. 4:3 content is back to being broadcast 4:3. No more stretchovision and hopefully it will stay this way. If you helped raise a fuss over this, good work!

Another forum member is bringing his DB8 over to my house Saturday to test it's reception on the Locals. I have a feeling I'll need a Pre-amp for WSAZ and WOWK.

Two questions:

1) What is a good Pre-Amp to go with the DB8, and where could I look for the best prices, as I've seen some of those Preamps are around $60-$70.

2) I know I'll have no problem obtaining WVAH and WCHS. Is there a rule of thumb Signal Level where I would NOT want to use the Preamp for driving the signal too hot? I think Dallas may have done this at some point and used another antenna without the preamp to pull in those two channels in combination with a splitter with the other antenna/preamp.

Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.solidsignal.com/antennas/

I believe that I have the Channel Master CM7777, its priced at $49.99 now at Solid Signal.

I live at Big Chimney, off Mink Shoals exit 1.7 miles up Elk River(Route 119) and I am approximately 18 miles from towers, and I have no problem with over driving the signal.

Tony, you may be able to get by with an indoor amp like the Channel Master 3042 that does a pretty good job. I purchased one from Lowe's a year or two back, and they sold for around $25.00.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=CM3042

I have contacted WQCW (our CW station) to ask if they broadcast in HD, they say they do, Can anyone confirm that (I can't get any OTA signals)?

If they do I am going to contact Suddenlink because the new season of shows start in the next couple of weeks and they should have had a deal in place as soon as they started to broadcast in HD.

Tony, you may be able to get by with an indoor amp like the Channel Master 3042 that does a pretty good job. I purchased one from Lowe's a year or two back, and they sold for around $25.00.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=CM3042

Thanks!!! I remember the CM7777 now that you reminded me.

Tony, not be be overlooked is this antenna from Radio Shack for $29.99.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=family

I have one connected to my basement Panasonic Plasma, with a Channel Master 3042 that I purchased at Lowe's for around $25.00, and it will pick up 3,8,11, and 13.

You have reported in the past that you do get some of the channels with an indoor antenna. This could be a low cost option until Directv gets our locals(Pipe Dream).

Tony, not be be overlooked is this antenna from Radio Shack for $29.99.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=family

I have one connected to my basement Panasonic Plasma, with a Channel Master 3042 that I purchased at Lowe's for around $25.00, and it will pick up 3,8,11, and 13.

You have reported in the past that you do get some of the channels with an indoor antenna. This could be a low cost option until Directv gets our locals(Pipe Dream).

My buddy brought over his DB8. We could pretty much put it anywhere and get 8-1 and 11-1. There was ONE spot on my house that I was able to get 8-1, 11-1, 3-1 and 13-1 all around 65%. With the DirecTV HR20, that is a pretty good signal with no drops. Now I have to make the determination if I want the Antenna on my house.

Geez...if D* would add our Locals in HD, I think they would see more D* subscribers get their HD receivers. I know many with HD sets that don't care to have the Network HD channels, but they want our locals in HD and aren't willing to put up an antenna.

Yes, your signal should increase with an amplifier also. I bought a 30 ft telescoping galvanized antenna pole at Lowe's, and ran it up beside my deck. I made a 8" diameter concrete base that was put in the ground about 24 inches, and secured the pole to the side of the deck near the eaves of roof, and used three turnbuckles and guy wire to help in keeping it from swaying. My deck is 7 feet off the ground. It really doesn't look as bad as it sounds.

I did not want to put a permanent antenna on my roof...... My preference.

I have the Channel Master CM4228 Antenna for my living room tv. I have had this up for over a year, maybe two. Can't count on DirecTV.

Between DirecTV and ESPN, I am still waiting for ESPNU in HD. I would like to see them get that worked out also.....

Yes, your signal should increase with an amplifier also. I bought a 30 ft telescoping galvanized antenna pole at Lowe's, and ran it up beside my deck. I made a 8" diameter concrete base that was put in the ground about 24 inches, and secured the pole to the side of the deck near the eaves of roof, and used three turnbuckles and guy wire to help in keeping it from swaying. My deck is 7 feet off the ground. It really doesn't look as bad as it sounds.

I did not want to put a permanent antenna on my roof...... My preference.

I have the Channel Master CM4228 Antenna for my living room tv. I have had this up for over a year, maybe two. Can't count on DirecTV.

Between DirecTV and ESPN, I am still waiting for ESPNU in HD. I would like to see them get that worked out also.....

You have any pictures of that setup? I have one of those 30' telescoping poles from Lowes. If I put up a DB8, I plan on doing just that, but will have to put it on the side of the house (only spot to avoid trees to get a signal). It's the side of the house you don't see as you drive up to my house, but I'm still not sure I want to put it up.

You have any pictures of that setup? I have one of those 30' telescoping poles from Lowes. If I put up a DB8, I plan on doing just that, but will have to put it on the side of the house (only spot to avoid trees to get a signal). It's the side of the house you don't see as you drive up to my house, but I'm still not sure I want to put it up.

Not sure how to post these pics, but here goes.....

Not sure how to post these pics, but here goes.....

Thanks for the pictures. The telescoping mast I had (the one you have), I gave to my father in law to hold on to as I wasn't using it. Murphey's law, now that I need it, I found out he got rid of it last week. LOL. Oh well.

Do you have two antennas to pull in different stations and using a combiner/splitter to get them?

Ok guys, thought I'd ask those with outdoor antennas how they have their system grounded. I understand how they 'should' be grounded, but to do it properly, I can't do in my situation.

1) First off, do you have you Antenna AND the Coax grounded, or one or the other?

2) If you have one or both grounded, what did you ground it to? (i.e. electrical ground from the power company, drive your own pole into the ground, etc.)

3) Who is taking the chance and just not grounding their antenna?

I do know the antenna mast, as well as the coax should be grounded. You should use a grounding block near the entrance into the house where the coax enters. The coax from the antenna goes into the block, then out of the block into the house, and a ground wire is run from that block to the grounding rod. Also, you should use at least a #10 AWG copper wire from the Mast to the grounding block. That way, both the coax and the antenna mast are grounded.

Now, here is the kicker. Some folks do this, but drive their own ground rod into the ground 8'. This is acceptable as long as you then use a #6AWG copper cable and connect THAT grounding rod to the Electrical grounding rod. Otherwise, you could have the possibility of a ground potential rise (varying ground voltage) between the AC and your antenna, which could spell trouble for your equipment and could be hazerdous.

For me, my antenna must go on the opposite side of the house from my electrical ground. I could drive my own rod, but there is no way I could connect the two ground rods on opposite ends of the house from all the concrete it would have to pass under.

So, the reason for this post is to find out how people are doing it. Theory is one thing, but I have a feeling 90% of folks with Antennas don't have them grounded properly, and I'm probably over worrying for nothing. I tend to do that with about everything I do.

Thanks for the pictures. The telescoping mast I had (the one you have), I gave to my father in law to hold on to as I wasn't using it. Murphey's law, now that I need it, I found out he got rid of it last week. LOL. Oh well.

Do you have two antennas to pull in different stations and using a combiner/splitter to get them?

I was having trouble pulling in WSAZ for both sets using one splitter and with each set having an indoor am CM3042. So I bought an outdoor amp for the tv upstairs, and used the Radio Shack antenna with one of the remaining indoor amps downstairs. I am now able to pull WSAZ in at about 65% on both sets.

Oh, and by the way, I believe I told you wrong about how I have the mast secured in the ground. I actually used a piece of 3" PVC down in the concrete, and set the post down inside the PVC. That way, I can remove it easily if I need to work on the system or even get rid of it if we ever get the locals. However, I will probably keep it as backup.

Ok guys, thought I'd ask those with outdoor antennas how they have their system grounded. I understand how they 'should' be grounded, but to do it properly, I can't do in my situation.

1) First off, do you have you Antenna AND the Coax grounded, or one or the other?

2) If you have one or both grounded, what did you ground it to? (i.e. electrical ground from the power company, drive your own pole into the ground, etc.)

3) Who is taking the chance and just not grounding their antenna?

I do know the antenna mast, as well as the coax should be grounded. You should use a grounding block near the entrance into the house where the coax enters. The coax from the antenna goes into the block, then out of the block into the house, and a ground wire is run from that block to the grounding rod. Also, you should use at least a #10 AWG copper wire from the Mast to the grounding block. That way, both the coax and the antenna mast are grounded.

Now, here is the kicker. Some folks do this, but drive their own ground rod into the ground 8'. This is acceptable as long as you then use a #6AWG copper cable and connect THAT grounding rod to the Electrical grounding rod. Otherwise, you could have the possibility of a ground potential rise (varying ground voltage) between the AC and your antenna, which could spell trouble for your equipment and could be hazerdous.

For me, my antenna must go on the opposite side of the house from my electrical ground. I could drive my own rod, but there is no way I could connect the two ground rods on opposite ends of the house from all the concrete it would have to pass under.

So, the reason for this post is to find out how people are doing it. Theory is one thing, but I have a feeling 90% of folks with Antennas don't have them grounded properly, and I'm probably over worrying for nothing. I tend to do that with about everything I do.

Well, Tony, I for one drove a ground rod as far as I could into the ground near the antenna as you may see the wires along side my house in the previous pictures. Yes, I do have a grounding block, and also have the antenna grounded with 12 gauge wire. I guess it would probably not meet code, but that is mostly likely all I will do.

Do you have two antennas to pull in different stations and using a combiner/splitter to get them?

I have two antennas, a 4228 pointed at 3/13 and a DB4 pointed at 8/11. The are combined with a simple splitter and I have had no problems.

What is up withh 13......do those morons not know how to flip the HD switch. I am watching a Benals game that is supposed to be in hD. DUMB!

Does anyone know of a local source for Rockwool insulation?

Thanks.

Does anyone know of a local source for Rockwool insulation?

Thanks.


Try "Specialty Products and Insulation Company" in Winfield (6048 State Route 34). 757-2655

This is where I purchased my 2" Knauff Rigid Fiberglass for my Wall panels (First Order Reflection points) as well as 4" of Bass Trapping in the front corners. Not sure if they have Rockwool, but a good place to start.

I was wondering. Since Feb. 17th is the cutover to digital, D* will no longer have our Analog feeds to broadcast. I'm thinking that D* will be supplying us with our Local HDs from the 17th, if they don't activate them before.

Am I thinking of this correctly? Since our Locals are already broadcasting in HD Digital (not SD Digital), wouldn't D* be carrying our HD Locals on 2/17/09?

If so, then maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Try "Specialty Products and Insulation Company" in Winfield (6048 State Route 34).

Thanks.

I was wondering. Since Feb. 17th is the cutover to digital, D* will no longer have our Analog feeds to broadcast. I'm thinking that D* will be supplying us with our Local HDs from the 17th, if they don't activate them before.

Unfortunately no. Our market already transitioned over to digital locals. D* is taking the digital feed and downrezzing/cropping it and resending it. I think our date for DirecTV was 8/25/08 and DISH will transition occur on 10/6/08 per this list: http://www.mstv.org/docs/satschedalpha.pdf

Thanks.



Unfortunately no. Our market already transitioned over to digital locals. D* is taking the digital feed and downrezzing/cropping it and resending it. I think our date for DirecTV was 8/25/08 and DISH will transition occur on 10/6/08 per this list: http://www.mstv.org/docs/satschedalpha.pdf

Forgive me as I'm ignorant to this, but that doesn't seem to make sense. Seems to me that it's more work and more money for D* to downrez the Digital Signals and pass along to us as SD than just passing along as HD. If they are receiving the Digital Signal (HD Feed), then why not pass it along. Again, forgive my ignorance, but makes no sense to me.

When you say they've 'Transitioned', that makes me think you mean they no longer offer the Analog Feed. If I remember correctly, last time I tried to pick up the analog feeds OTA, I was getting them. Do you mean "D*" has transitioned over to providing the digital and not the Analog? Again, I don't get it. Bray told you they aren't offering our Locals in HD because the number of HD receivers compared to D* subscribers in our area is very low, and not cost effective for them to handle at this time. If they are already receiving our Digital (HD feeds), would it really cost them anymore to pass it along to us as HD? I'd understand it if they had to put up a new Sat for it, but they don't...they have the required bandwidth now. Again, just seems like if this is what D* is doing, it's more costly and more time to down rez the signals than just passing the HD feel along to us. Sorry if I have no idea what I'm talking about, but to a Lamen looking in, this makes little sense.

Any chance Dish carries the locals in hd when they transition over?

If D* provided nothing but the HD feed va Ka and MPEG-4, then everyone with a Phase III Ku dish and MPEG-2 only receivers would lose their locals. Or they would have to replace every old dish/receiver in the market. That would cost way more then downrezzing the digital signals.

At this point, it is no longer analog vs. digital, but SD vs. HD. They are providing an SD signal from a digital source vs. an SD signal from an analog source using the same bandwidth on 7S Transponder 29 (I think) that they were the day before they transitioned.

One reason it might not make financial sense if there are few HD receivers in the DMA is the bandwidth required to send an SD signal to the uplink facility would be much less than the bandwidth required to send an HD signal. They may not want, or maybe the stations don't want, to pay for it just yet.

But that brings up a good question as to who pays for the bandwidth to provide the signal to the uplink. Maybe I'll ask this over at DBSTalk.

Cold Case is not in HD tonight and I'm gearing up for the Unit in HD.

I called WOWK and they said their button is on the HD feed should be broadcasting, but it's not. He then asked me if I was seeing their local commercial, and at that exact time, my screen went blank. He said he was going to call an engineer to see what's going on. It may be a network problem as to why Cold Case is SD and not HD.

I hope they get it fixed in the next 14 minutes. I love the Unit and this will be my first HD experience for that specific show.

Cold Case is not in HD tonight and I'm gearing up for the Unit in HD.

I called WOWK and they said their button is on the HD feed should be broadcasting, but it's not. He then asked me if I was seeing their local commercial, and at that exact time, my screen went blank. He said he was going to call an engineer to see what's going on. It may be a network problem as to why Cold Case is SD and not HD.

I hope they get it fixed in the next 14 minutes. I love the Unit and this will be my first HD experience for that specific show.

Did you get an outdoor antenna up? Amp? Just curious?

Did you get an outdoor antenna up? Amp? Just curious?


Not yet. I put my indoor antenna outside on the Patio, and it's getting 100% for 11-1 and 8-1 and in the 60s for 13-1, but nothing for 3-1. I'm still planning on putting one up, it's just hard to find the time required to do it.


Regarding 13-1. I think it's ironic that the guy I talked to in the Control Room said everything was working correct on their end, and it wasn't 2 minutes after I finished the call, that Cold Case went from SD to HD.

I live 41101-3736 Ashland ky.
at present all locals are in uhf frequency engineer from wowk tv said all in our area would stay uhf except Keith,
All of the local channels will stay in the UHF band after february except WOWK who will go back to channel 13.
So i want to put up an outdoor antenna to pick up my locals d network does not offer hd locals in this area as of yet
i suppose it would be smart to put up a combination antenna of would it be better to go with two antenna's
Does anyone have any idea when d network will add hd locals
any advice would be greatly appreciated
i now have twarner cable would like to switch to d network seems they have more hd channels
thanks keith

One good antenna such as a 4228 or DB8 should work fine as either will pick up VHF13.

So far neither DISH or DirecTV has given any indication when our locals will be added, so an antenna will be your best choice for now.

Anyone here live in Huntington and have Comcast's HD service? I was at my sister in law and her husband's apartment in Huntington over the weekend and he showed me the problem with their WSAZ and WOWK HD through Comcast. It's not even watchable due to the breakups and the pixelation. However, WVAH and WCHS look fine. So does his other HD channels, such as ESPN.

He called Comcast three weeks ago and they were going to come out and check his setup. They called him back and said they found out the problem is on their end and they are working on a fix. It's been 3 weeks, an no fix.

Anyone else in the Huntington area with Comcast having this problem? Any clue what it could be on their end?

I am wondering if there would be any chance of me picking up WLPX? i'm 55 miles from the tower. I can get 15% signal strength at a good time of the day. I recieve WCHS & WVAH, which are approx. the same distance away. I checked their tranmiting data on a couple of sites. One place said it was 1000 kw and other said 245 kw. What's this mean, why the difference?
I have a DB8 w/ CM7778 amp. If I moved the antenna or went higher, would it help? Or should I just be contend becuase there is no chance of pulling it in? Any comments appreciated.

WLPX is putting out 1000 kW maximum, but they're operating a directional pattern. In your direction, you're probably receiving 245 kW.

South Webster looks to be right on the fringe of reception for WLPX. The thing to keep in mind is that WLPX is further away from you than WCHS and WVAH. While getting the antenna higher would help, it may not be enough to overcome the distance.

- Trip

Does anybody have a clue why Charleston is one of only three markets--along with Pittsburgh and Biloxi--that will NOT broadcast the Oklahoma-Texas game tomorrow? Is it unreasonable to for WCHS to at least put it on the HD feed, as the noon Big East game will surely not be in HD?

The reason is their sports director is a total moron. Who'd really want to see a double top five match up of undefeated teams for a possible national championship berth and dual Heisman quality QBs when unranked 1-4 Rutgers and unranked 4-1 Cincy will play?!?
One time several years ago, the jerk director chose not to show the top ten ranked Ohio State vs. top ten ranked Michigan game! Instead they put on the Temple vs. Rutgers game where both teams were in the bottom twenty and it had zero Big East conference implications. I tried to call them about that but their lines were busy all afternoon. I guess I was not the only one ticked they ignored the by default Big Ten Championship game that had national championship implications and that national ABC coverage maps said they were supposed to broadcast, over two of the worst teams in the country that year! Of course ABC ran ads all week about that OSU-UM game hyping it up only for WCHS to let us down big time.

The biggest crock, is most of the time they don't even bother to notify the other programmers - so not only can you not see the stinking game they are supposed to show according the NATIONAL ABC SPORTS DIRECTOR per their national coverage map on our wonderful ABC affiliate WCHS but you get blacked out of the ESPN Gameplan or ESPN 360 because the putz at WCHS never told them, that they, in their impotent wisdom selected the Big Easy lame game of the weAk. So you can't even get the best game in the country that week on pay per view. (That happened during that OSU - UM game too, so much for forking over the $ for GamePlan on that one) If they had a freaking clue, they would at least multicast the game they are supposed to show on 8-1 and put the sucky game on 8-2 since there is no music channel there now. I guess maybe their director has a sweetheart deal degree from WVU through the governor and the big east. I totally can understand them showing the Mounties over UK or OSU. But another Big East team over OSU, UK or a top ten national match up makes no since whatsoever especially when the National coverage map says they are supposed to cover it. At least when they don't follow the National map for pete's sake TELL the cable and sat companies so we can at least get it pay per view! Maybe they are afraid to tell others of their game selection changes for fear ABC national will catch on to their crappy ratings on Sat. and force them to cover what they are supposed to! They could lose that degree too!-)

What a rant, well now I feel better of course I'll never forgive them for that OSU vs. UM slight.

At least they are supposed to show OSU - Purdue at 3:30, of course I am sure the Cincy-Rutgers game will probably run over in to a new overtime record and ruin the coverage!

They do have a very nice engineer there to help out with antenna stuff though!

does anybody have an email addy for the head man at wchs? i could not find on their website.

I have contacted WQCW (our CW station) to ask if they broadcast in HD, they say they do, Can anyone confirm that (I can't get any OTA signals)?

If they do I am going to contact Suddenlink because the new season of shows start in the next couple of weeks and they should have had a deal in place as soon as they started to broadcast in HD.



they have been broadcasting in hd for a while now. i have just in the past 2 weeks started getting a solid signal. they must have boosted power in charleston. i have watched the last two episodes of smallville in hd and they were great!

I couldn't find an address for any live person at WCHS TV--maybe they don't have anyone. I sent an email to the sales department hoping to get someone's attention that might be in charge of revenue. The sports programming at that station (and some of the other programming decisions) are simply unbelievable. Having GamePlan and ESPN blacked out is simply inexcusable. Good rant however. I know you feel much better--I know I do.

Who do I need to call to get the Wash/Cle back in HD. It was in HD for 3 seconds, then switched off.

I don't know who to call, but you should tell them to get with the program and add the Dolby Surround to their HD feeds too!

The Unit on Sunday was not in HD either. The show before it was. It was about an hour or an hour and a half late because the game went to OT, so maybe it automatically kicks off at a certain time, and they didn't think to turn it back on.

why does WSAZ not pick-up the raycom hd feed for the sec games they show? the uk/florida game they are showing is available in hd, but they are broadcasting the sd feed.

Doesn't look like we will have locals anytime soon. Another winter without HD locals. List that I just read on Satellite Guys:

With DirecTV now completing the October launches, there is a new and updated schedule of local market HD launch plans for November through Q1 2009.

Here is the latest:

November 2008

Boise ID
Des Moines-Ames IA
El Paso TX
Fort Smith AR
Fort Wayne IN
Harlingen-Brownsville TX
La Crosse-Eau Claire WI
Macon GA
Peoria-Bloomington IL
Rockford IL
Sioux Falls SD
Traverse City-Cadillac MI

December 2008

Tallahassee FL

January 2009

Greenville-New Bern-Washington NC

Febuary / March 2009

Bangor ME
Beaumont-Port Arthur TX
Butte-Bozeman MT
Dothan AL
Harrisonburg VA
Odessa TX
Palm Springs CA


For some markets, this represents a delay from the original plans. Unfortunately, sometimes delays happen. Also, keep in mind that in some markets, not all 4 primary networks will launch as contracts may not be finalized. Also, in some markets additional networks (CW, MY, PBS) have launched as well.

I think I'm going to call D* and ask for some discounts on my bill if they want to keep me. The only reason I've stayed with them was the promise of Locals in HD. Because Charleston/Huntington was in DMA 64, we were lead to believe we would have the locals this year. We are paying the same $$ as those receiving their locals in HD. 90% of my TV viewing is Network TV. If I could find a good way to DVR OTA channels without spending lots of $$ for the DVR or lots of $$ for a monthly subscription fee, I'd drop D* and go with OTA only.


Doesn't look like we will have locals anytime soon. Another winter without HD locals. List that I just read on Satellite Guys:

With DirecTV now completing the October launches, there is a new and updated schedule of local market HD launch plans for November through Q1 2009.

Here is the latest:

November 2008

Boise ID
Des Moines-Ames IA
El Paso TX
Fort Smith AR
Fort Wayne IN
Harlingen-Brownsville TX
La Crosse-Eau Claire WI
Macon GA
Peoria-Bloomington IL
Rockford IL
Sioux Falls SD
Traverse City-Cadillac MI

December 2008

Tallahassee FL

January 2009

Greenville-New Bern-Washington NC

Febuary / March 2009

Bangor ME
Beaumont-Port Arthur TX
Butte-Bozeman MT
Dothan AL
Harrisonburg VA
Odessa TX
Palm Springs CA


For some markets, this represents a delay from the original plans. Unfortunately, sometimes delays happen. Also, keep in mind that in some markets, not all 4 primary networks will launch as contracts may not be finalized. Also, in some markets additional networks (CW, MY, PBS) have launched as well.

I think I'm going to call D* and ask for some discounts on my bill if they want to keep me. The only reason I've stayed with them was the promise of Locals in HD. Because Charleston/Huntington was in DMA 64, we were lead to believe we would have the locals this year. We are paying the same $$ as those receiving their locals in HD. 90% of my TV viewing is Network TV. If I could find a good way to DVR OTA channels without spending lots of $$ for the DVR or lots of $$ for a monthly subscription fee, I'd drop D* and go with OTA only.

You could go with Dish Network. They give you a free DVR. I got their TurboHD package and I am pleased with it. I do wish they would get the HD locals as well, but it works good recording the OTA channels in HD.

You could go with Dish Network. They give you a free DVR. I do wish they would get the HD locals as well, but it works good recording the OTA channels in HD.

Have you seen DISH's HD LIL list. Someone over at DBSTalk posted the markets that don't have HD LIL and it makes D*'s look great. Lots of markets in the 40's without HD locals.

As for the D* list, those are the markets that were announced back in August. Part of the issue is D* needs to move the locals served by the 72.5 slot as they have to give that slot up. So those markets got to go first.

Hopefully once the currently announced markets are served, we will get ours in the next rollout.

Have you seen DISH's HD LIL list. Someone over at DBSTalk posted the markets that don't have HD LIL and it makes D*'s look great. Lots of markets in the 40's without HD locals.

As for the D* list, those are the markets that were announced back in August. Part of the issue is D* needs to move the locals served by the 72.5 slot as they have to give that slot up. So those markets got to go first.

Hopefully once the currently announced markets are served, we will get ours in the next rollout.


I'm sure it will happen at some point, just a matter of when.

You could go with Dish Network. They give you a free DVR. I got their TurboHD package and I am pleased with it. I do wish they would get the HD locals as well, but it works good recording the OTA channels in HD.

I have to agree....it works prefectly.

You could go with Dish Network. They give you a free DVR. I got their TurboHD package and I am pleased with it. I do wish they would get the HD locals as well, but it works good recording the OTA channels in HD.

I must not have placed my comment in a coherent manor...LOL.

I have D* now with their HD DVR. I can record Locals now in HD. However, I pay $85 a month to do so with the normal D* Package, the DVR Fee and the HD Package. All of this when I watch Locals OTA 75% of the time.

What I meant was too bad there isn't an easy and cheap way to record HD OTA WITHOUT going with Tivo's $12 a month fee and $300-$500 box price or D* or E*. You'd think there would be an OTA HD DVR out there that utilizes the Guide that our Local Networks broadcast so you didn't have to pay a monthly fee like with Tivo.

What I meant was too bad there isn't an easy and cheap way to record HD OTA WITHOUT going with Tivo's $12 a month fee and $300-$500 box price or D* or E*. You'd think there would be an OTA HD DVR out there that utilizes the Guide that our Local Networks broadcast so you didn't have to pay a monthly fee like with Tivo.

Windows Media Center does that. Of course spending the money on a new computer just for that purpose would in all likelihood be much more expensive. But if you have an adequate machine, even if if you need to buy an ATSC tuner, it's a cheap and effective alternative if you don't like paying the proverbial "man" an extra monthly fee just to record your OTA shows. Most new laptops come with HD tuners and HDMI out as an option making them perfect DVRs for OTA with no additional fee, as long as you don't mind the hassle of hooking up your computer to the tv every time you want to watch something you recorded.

I hope they get the sound fixed for this WVU game :mad:

Can someone please help me out.

I live in Charleston, WV.......off the Montrose Exit. I have direct tv, however you guys know that direct tv does not have My Z TV as one of the local channels. I'm wanting to get this channel so I need a UHF antenna......my question is which one should I get? Do I need an outdoor one or can I just use an indoor one? About how much is a UHF antenna? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to AVS.

What is the terrain like to your west? I have been up in some of the neighborhoods off Montrose and you could have a hill directly behind you to the west.

If you have a semi clear shot to the west, you will need a good UHF antenna. I would recommend at least a Channel Master 4221 or Antennas Direct Digital DB4, but you may want to go with a 4228 or DB8. All 4 are directional UHF antennas with the 4228 and DB8 having approximately twice the gain.

You may also need an amplifier.

Check out Solid Signal (http://www.solidsignal.com/antennas/) as they have a good selection and decent prices. Also check out: www.antennweb.org for antenna info and you can enter your exact address and it will give you the direction of each channel.

According to this post:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=143248

Dish is adding Charleston/Huntington market in HD on Nov 19. Maybe this will cause D* to get their *** in gear.


Local Markets Confirmed For November 19th

DMA #34: Cincinnati, OH
DMA #41: Harrisburg / Lancester / Lebanon / York, PA
DMA #47: Jacksonville, FL
DMA #50: Louisville, KY
DMA #56: Little Rock / Pine Bluff, AR
DMA #63: Lexington, KY
DMA #65: Charleston / Huntington, WV
DMA #74: Springfield, MO
DMA #145: Wichita Falls, TX / Lawton, OK

Thanks for that info!!!! Never thought I'd see out Local HD on E* before D*. I may have to switch unless we hear something soon from D*.

According to this post:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=143248

Dish is adding Charleston/Huntington market in HD on Nov 19. Maybe this will cause D* to get their *** in gear.


Local Markets Confirmed For November 19th

DMA #34: Cincinnati, OH
DMA #41: Harrisburg / Lancester / Lebanon / York, PA
DMA #47: Jacksonville, FL
DMA #50: Louisville, KY
DMA #56: Little Rock / Pine Bluff, AR
DMA #63: Lexington, KY
DMA #65: Charleston / Huntington, WV
DMA #74: Springfield, MO
DMA #145: Wichita Falls, TX / Lawton, OK

Does anyone have the TurboHD plan through Dish? With the information above that Dish will carry our Locals in HD by 11/19/08, I'm thinking of dropping D* and going with Dish. 90% of my viewing are the Networks. The other 10% of my viewing is 90% of the channels that the TurboHD package carries (such as Disney, ESPN, ESPN2, USA, TNT, Food, HGTV). To save money, I think I may switch out to Dish.

I think I may still be locked into the 2 year commitment for D*. How much do they charge you to drop early? I will try to talk my way out of it as I've only been holding on to them vai their promise of Locals in HD that has not materialized. Plus, my bill will be 50% cheaper with the Turbo HD package.

Does anyone have the TurboHD plan through Dish? With the information above that Dish will carry our Locals in HD by 11/19/08, I'm thinking of dropping D* and going with Dish. 90% of my viewing are the Networks. The other 10% of my viewing is 90% of the channels that the TurboHD package carries (such as Disney, ESPN, ESPN2, USA, TNT, Food, HGTV). To save money, I think I may switch out to Dish.

I think I may still be locked into the 2 year commitment for D*. How much do they charge you to drop early? I will try to talk my way out of it as I've only been holding on to them vai their promise of Locals in HD that has not materialized. Plus, my bill will be 50% cheaper with the Turbo HD package.

I have the TurboHD package and am very pleased with it. Just like you almost all of my viewing are on the networks and those channels. The only channels I really miss is Nickelodeon and Fox News both of which are supposed to be added to the TurboHD package "soon" whenever that is. :p
I'm thrilled to hear that the locals are going to be coming in HD. I have been able to get all but CBS thru my antenna so now I guess I'll be able to get that too. :)

I have the TurboHD package and am very pleased with it. Just like you almost all of my viewing are on the networks and those channels. The only channels I really miss is Nickelodeon and Fox News both of which are supposed to be added to the TurboHD package "soon" whenever that is. :p
I'm thrilled to hear that the locals are going to be coming in HD. I have been able to get all but CBS thru my antenna so now I guess I'll be able to get that too. :)

Good to hear. I wonder if Dish Network can use my existing Mount that the DirecTV Dish is attached to on the top of my roof?

Do you have the HD DVR, and if so, which one?

Good to hear. I wonder if Dish Network can use my existing Mount that the DirecTV Dish is attached to on the top of my roof?

Do you have the HD DVR, and if so, which one?

I would think that they could use the same mount. I do have the HD DVR. I have the Vip722. It's a fantastic DVR. I've had Directv's and Suddenlink's DVR's in the past and this one is much better. I had to pay $50 for the upgrade to the 722. They wanted to give me a 612 for free. The 722 has a bigger hard drive. It allows you to record up to 3 channels at the same time if you hook up the OTA channels. You can record 2 satellite channels and 1 OTA channel. Also, they gave me a $50 credit when I signed up so basically I got the Vip722 and a Vip211k for a second HDTV for free. You also get all the Cinemax channels for free if you do paperless billing. I did have to sign a two year commitment.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972197

It appears the DTVPal (TR-50) will be available in mid December as a fee free OTAHD recording device. (no telephone jack in back according to a beta tester). 30 hours of HD recording on the hard drive.
--------------------------------------------
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), the digital transition leader, today announced its much anticipated DTVPal(TM) DVR will be available for preorder nationwide starting Nov. 19, with sales projected to begin in mid-December. The DTVPal(TM) DVR is the only digital-to-analog converter box sold in the U.S. that offers digital video recording functionality.

Winner of CNET's 2008 "Best of CES" award in the Home Video category, the DTVPal(TM) DVR gives consumers the flexibility to watch their favorite over-the-air programming whenever they want via its advanced recording features - the same technology included in DISH Network's award-winning ViP Series DVR receivers. The DTVPal(TM) DVR also allows for viewing HD programming over-the-air in addition to standard definition digital programming, providing access to the best resolution available from local stations.

"The DTVPal(TM) DVR is the first product of its kind in the converter box market, and gives consumers not only the benefit of receiving digital and high definition signals, but also brings their TV experience to a new level with the ability to record up to 150 hours of standard definition or up to 30 hours of high definition programming," said Tom Stingley, executive vice president of Sales and Distribution for DISH Network. "Now consumers who watch over-the-air programming don't have to be tied to their TV schedules, but rather can enjoy their favorite shows at their leisure, on their time."
The DTVPal(TM) DVR joins DISH Network's suite of top-rated converter boxes such as the TR-40 CRA, DTVPal(TM) and DTVPal(TM) Plus, and includes all the popular features like analog pass-through, an easy-to-follow setup wizard, a best in class* electronic program guide with up to seven days of program listings, parental controls, program search, auto tune timers for program recording on a connected VCR, closed caption support, a remote control, and signal strength screen pop-ups that can troubleshoot lost signals. DISH Network's suite of digital-to-analog converter boxes were designed and engineered by DISH Network's technology provider, EchoStar Technologies LLC, an award-winning digital media leader in set-top box design and deployment.

While the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has not authorized the DTVPal(TM) DVR for its coupon program due to the box's enhanced features, DISH Network has instituted an instant rebate that saves consumers an additional $10 over the $40 coupon value. The DTVPal(TM) DVR retails for $299, but with the rebate is $249 - a savings of $50.

Consumers can also prepare for the digital transition by subscribing to pay television. DISH Network offers the best value in entertainment with the lowest all-digital price every day, along with unmatched technology and award-winning customer service that has surpassed major cable TV providers for the past eight years. The recently introduced DISH Network American and Latino Welcome Packs feature 20 popular channels for less than $10 per month. Or for as little as $19.99 per month (additional $5 for local channels), DISH Network customers can subscribe to the DishFAMILY package and receive over 40 popular channels, plus free installation and activation.
--------------------------------------------
Anyone know if our locals use TVGOS data with their OTA signal?????

I have another question about WLPX. It was said last time I posted on here that WLPX's broadcast antenna was directional. Why is that? I assume the Feds dictate this? I would think they would want to reach as many viewers as possible. Which includes us in Southern Ohio, but we are not. So basically why a directional antenna?

I have another question about WLPX. It was said last time I posted on here that WLPX's broadcast antenna was directional. Why is that? I assume the Feds dictate this? I would think they would want to reach as many viewers as possible. Which includes us in Southern Ohio, but we are not. So basically why a directional antenna?

There are generally two reasons for directional antennas:

1. Side-mounted antenna on a tower. No point in beaming power into the metal structure holding it up. If there's already an antenna on top of the tower, then the station's antenna has to go on the side.

2. Interference protection, which I'm guessing is the problem here. WKMR-38 analog in Morehead, KY could be stepped on by that signal, and for that reason the pattern must be directional to protect it.

- Trip

Thanks for the info on WLPX, but it brings up another question. If interference with WKMR is the reason WLPX uses a directional transmitter. What happens after the change over to digital? Those two stations should not affect each other then. Would the FCC allow WLPX to go to a non-dirctional transmitting mode so the other half of the market could recieve the signal? What about the other area stations, will any be broadcasting a stronger signal? I suppose i'm asking aside from going digital, what will happen after February?

Here's what I know:

WSAZ-DT has a permit to increase power to 825 kW and wants to go all the way to 1000 kW.

WOWK-DT will move to channel 13 at 6.9 kW, and wants to go up to 12.5 kW.

WQCW-DT wants to move to the WOWK tower at 1000 kW, which would make that signal easier to receive. This may not happen on 02/17/09.

WPBY-DT wants to boost power at some point from the current 60.1 kW to 953 kW. This may not happen on 02/17/09.

As for WLPX-DT, I'm sure they could get a non-directional antenna at that point, but given ION's financial state, I doubt they will. They'll likely continue using the antenna they have since it's fully functional and they really can't afford it.

- Trip

Here in the very (extreme)western edge of the viewing area Lewis County Ky. 3 comes in crystal clear 13 use to did they tinker with the power? Harldly ever comes in I see on the above post their power now maybe that is the problem now. 8 and 11 and those others mentioned you might as well forget about it you could not get it on your best day down this way. Maybe IF the FCC or whoever you have to go to would allow all of them to go to 1000 or a smidgen less no one would have any problem getting them. And I tried on 3 different antennas over the years a radio shack vu190 a channel master 3671 and now this philips SDV 9011K/17 (odd looking tho). Maybe they will get better in Feb. I have better luck pulling in Cincinnati, Lexington and occasionally 2 and 7 in dayton.

:confused:Looks like they are snubbing THE GAME again this year! Better give them your opinion of their sports programming!

http://www.wchstv.com/schedule/schedule10.shtml

http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnGuide

________________________________________

Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:40 PM

Subject: FW: Emailing: WCHS-TV8 Daily Program Schedule NO OSU vs. Michigan This Year!?!



Subject: Emailing: WCHS-TV8 Daily Program Schedule NO OSU vs. Michigan

Call WCHSTV (Be nice) to demand they carry Michigan vs. Ohio State not the Big Easy Game of the Weak :Army vs. Rutgers the Saturday after this coming.

WCHS Wchs-Tvs
1301 Piedmont Road, Charleston, WV 25301
http://wchstv.com

(304) 346-5358
(304) 346-4765 (fax)
(877) 924-7888 (toll-free)

WCHS-TV
Mr.HaroldCooper
General Manager
1301 Piedmont Rd
Charleston, WV
25301-1498
Phone: (304) 345-4115
Fax: (304) 345-1849
hcooper@sbgnet.com

:confused:Looks like they are snubbing THE GAME again this year! Better give them your opinion of their sports programming!

http://www.wchstv.com/schedule/schedule10.shtml

http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnGuide

________________________________________

Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:40 PM

Subject: FW: Emailing: WCHS-TV8 Daily Program Schedule NO OSU vs. Michigan This Year!?!



Subject: Emailing: WCHS-TV8 Daily Program Schedule NO OSU vs. Michigan

Call WCHSTV (Be nice) to demand they carry Michigan vs. Ohio State not the Big Easy Game of the Weak :Army vs. Rutgers the Saturday after this coming.

WCHS Wchs-Tvs
1301 Piedmont Road, Charleston, WV 25301
http://wchstv.com

(304) 346-5358
(304) 346-4765 (fax)
(877) 924-7888 (toll-free)

WCHS-TV
Mr.HaroldCooper
General Manager
1301 Piedmont Rd
Charleston, WV
25301-1498
Phone: (304) 345-4115
Fax: (304) 345-1849
hcooper@sbgnet.com

No offense, but Michigan sucks and is a sore spot with WVU fans, and most folks I know in this area don't care much for OSU.

Here in the very (extreme)western edge of the viewing area Lewis County Ky. 3 comes in crystal clear 13 use to did they tinker with the power? Harldly ever comes in I see on the above post their power now maybe that is the problem now. 8 and 11 and those others mentioned you might as well forget about it you could not get it on your best day down this way. Maybe IF the FCC or whoever you have to go to would allow all of them to go to 1000 or a smidgen less no one would have any problem getting them. And I tried on 3 different antennas over the years a radio shack vu190 a channel master 3671 and now this philips SDV 9011K/17 (odd looking tho). Maybe they will get better in Feb. I have better luck pulling in Cincinnati, Lexington and occasionally 2 and 7 in dayton.

If you can get nothing at all from WCHS/WVAH, then I'd venture to suggest that boosting power from 475 kW to 1000 kW will do nothing for you. It's only a bit over a 3 dB boost in power, with 16 dB being required for a successful decode. Unless you're right below the threshold of receiving the station, I doubt it would help you.

- Trip

No offense taken Tony,

I am just tired of WCHS screwing up the ABC national carriage map and ruining the whole ABC/ESPN Gameplan schedule. http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnGuide

You may not care for OSU but I thought all the “Dick Rod” haters down there would thoroughly enjoy seeing his team get spanked again (I know I would :D ).

Does anyone know who TV8's programming/sports director is? They aren’t right in the head and I am worried about them losing their job.

As far as “No offense, but Michigan sucks and is a sore spot with WVU fans, and most folks I know in this area don't care much for OSU.”

I can gladly agree with you on the UM sucking part, but as far as folks not caring for OSU (jealousy:rolleyes:), well I don't see a heck of a lot of Army/Rutgers merchandise for sale in the Huntington/Charleston area. I don't see many advertisers on WCHS from West Point, NY or Piscataway, NJ either. But like them or not, the third most popular colors around here after WVU Blue & MU Green is definitely OSU Scarlet, at least until basketball kicks in and then you see a lighter UK blue too. Their argument to not show the Buckeyes has no market sense. Somebody down there at WCHS is stuck in a bad Big East programming deal that is terribly costly to get out of I guess. Maybe their programming selection is the reason they are the Tri-State leader in Infomercials!

I know it is pretty much Big East country down there in Charleston, but there are lots of Buckeyes (especially versus the Black & Scarlet Knight fans combined) in TV8's DMA. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=marketmap I can see breaking out of ABC’s national map for a WVU or MU game; but taking the Independent Army (3-7) vs. Big East Rutgers (4-5) game {combined losing records} with little on the line BCS or Big East-wise over the (according to ESPN) greatest rivalry in college football with Big Ten Conference Championship/Rose Bowl implications between two historic programs (3-7) UM vs. (8-2) #11 OSU is a very bad choice. :confused: I wouldn’t want to see Indiana play Purdue and I am Big Ten fan, so tell me why WCHS thinks their DMA would want to see Army/Rutgers? Especially since the ABC/ESPN Game-Plan expects you to pay for that Army/Rutgers garbage and we are supposed to receive the UM vs. OSU game per ABC’s national map! http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/2008/week13.html They screw with their assigned games so much it nearly makes the Game Plan worthless around here.

Why doesn’t TV8 utilize their retired 8-2 for the crappy Big East junk games and save 8-1 for the designated national game good stuff? (WSAZ does it sometimes with football)
They pulled the same crap this year with the TX OU game too! See post #3200

Here’s a great college sports TV listing website http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/

Off rant now (I know finally :p ):

Scioto-Guy, I also had trouble with Ion. I used a http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=AD-91XG with great success but you will probably need a VHF antenna too when 13 switches over.

If any of you use Windows Media Center and lost 13-1 a little while back the cause is bad channel guide data, a fix is here that worked for me: post# 251357 at http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/250480.aspx

Tony, Win MCE is a viable alternative to HD/DVR for OTA if you have a decent computer with an ATSC tuner and an XBOX 360 as an extender. I have seen both DTV and DishHD, for a sports nut DTV wins, otherwise it’s a toss up these days IMO. Either way, I would definitely keep the OTA as back up for rain fade/sat issues. Also many prefer the uncompressed OTA signal vs. the voodoo mpeg stuff the satcasters provide although I can’t tell much difference personally.

Thanks for putting up with my rants, looks like I’ll be watching the radio next Saturday!:(

Looks like they will show the Bucks according to the station mgr. see below email. (quick response too:))


That’s great! I guess your station’s website listing and my TV set-top box guide is incorrect. http://www.wchstv.com/schedule/schedule10.shtml



Thanks for your time.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: hcooper@sbgnet.com [mailto:hcooper@sbgnet.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:55 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Sports Scheduling OSU vs. Rutgers



We are airing the Osu v Michigan game as do Every year

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Must not get too excited til I actually see it!

According to this post:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=143248

Dish is adding Charleston/Huntington market in HD on Nov 19. Maybe this will cause D* to get their *** in gear.


Local Markets Confirmed For November 19th

DMA #34: Cincinnati, OH
DMA #41: Harrisburg / Lancester / Lebanon / York, PA
DMA #47: Jacksonville, FL
DMA #50: Louisville, KY
DMA #56: Little Rock / Pine Bluff, AR
DMA #63: Lexington, KY
DMA #65: Charleston / Huntington, WV
DMA #74: Springfield, MO
DMA #145: Wichita Falls, TX / Lawton, OK

No offense taken Tony,

I am just tired of WCHS screwing up the ABC national carriage map and ruining the whole ABC/ESPN Gameplan schedule. http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnGuide

You may not care for OSU but I thought all the “Dick Rod” haters down there would thoroughly enjoy seeing his team get spanked again (I know I would :D ).

Does anyone know who TV8's programming/sports director is? They aren’t right in the head and I am worried about them losing their job.

As far as “No offense, but Michigan sucks and is a sore spot with WVU fans, and most folks I know in this area don't care much for OSU.”

I can gladly agree with you on the UM sucking part, but as far as folks not caring for OSU (jealousy:rolleyes:), well I don't see a heck of a lot of Army/Rutgers merchandise for sale in the Huntington/Charleston area. I don't see many advertisers on WCHS from West Point, NY or Piscataway, NJ either. But like them or not, the third most popular colors around here after WVU Blue & MU Green is definitely OSU Scarlet, at least until basketball kicks in and then you see a lighter UK blue too. Their argument to not show the Buckeyes has no market sense. Somebody down there at WCHS is stuck in a bad Big East programming deal that is terribly costly to get out of I guess. Maybe their programming selection is the reason they are the Tri-State leader in Infomercials!

I know it is pretty much Big East country down there in Charleston, but there are lots of Buckeyes (especially versus the Black & Scarlet Knight fans combined) in TV8's DMA. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=marketmap I can see breaking out of ABC’s national map for a WVU or MU game; but taking the Independent Army (3-7) vs. Big East Rutgers (4-5) game {combined losing records} with little on the line BCS or Big East-wise over the (according to ESPN) greatest rivalry in college football with Big Ten Conference Championship/Rose Bowl implications between two historic programs (3-7) UM vs. (8-2) #11 OSU is a very bad choice. :confused: I wouldn’t want to see Indiana play Purdue and I am Big Ten fan, so tell me why WCHS thinks their DMA would want to see Army/Rutgers? Especially since the ABC/ESPN Game-Plan expects you to pay for that Army/Rutgers garbage and we are supposed to receive the UM vs. OSU game per ABC’s national map! http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/2008/week13.html They screw with their assigned games so much it nearly makes the Game Plan worthless around here.

Why doesn’t TV8 utilize their retired 8-2 for the crappy Big East junk games and save 8-1 for the designated national game good stuff? (WSAZ does it sometimes with football)
They pulled the same crap this year with the TX OU game too! See post #3200

Here’s a great college sports TV listing website http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/

Off rant now (I know finally :p ):

Scioto-Guy, I also had trouble with Ion. I used a http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=AD-91XG with great success but you will probably need a VHF antenna too when 13 switches over.

If any of you use Windows Media Center and lost 13-1 a little while back the cause is bad channel guide data, a fix is here that worked for me: post# 251357 at http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/250480.aspx

Tony, Win MCE is a viable alternative to HD/DVR for OTA if you have a decent computer with an ATSC tuner and an XBOX 360 as an extender. I have seen both DTV and DishHD, for a sports nut DTV wins, otherwise it’s a toss up these days IMO. Either way, I would definitely keep the OTA as back up for rain fade/sat issues. Also many prefer the uncompressed OTA signal vs. the voodoo mpeg stuff the satcasters provide although I can’t tell much difference personally.

Thanks for putting up with my rants, looks like I’ll be watching the radio next Saturday!:(

You are right that they will get spanked, but the MI season is already done (no bowl game). I don't know why WCHS messes with the National Coverage Map game. It's not like the Rutgers game is a make or break BE game. Hopefully, you'll be in luck and get the game based on the info above.

If I recall, in order for WCHS to carry the WVU games that are the "Big East Game of the Week" that are contractually obligated to carry at least some of the non-WVU games.

Looked at the FCC's web site about signal coverage. It appears the edge of WCHS's viewable signal is about West Portsmouth. These are just estimates of course but I have problems pulling them in in South Webster, about 15 miles northeast from Portsmouth. I'm about 50 miles from WCHS's transmitter. From all my tinkering i've found out some things:

1: Higher isn't always better. I put up a 35' foot antenna tower thinking I could get better everything. I was wrong. Went back to a 15' pole.
2: Location is the most important. I moved 8' and lost the signals. Takes alot of work but move antenna 2 find best spots. You could use a smaller antenna & the digital converter's meter, find best spot for best signal then put up the larger antenna. You don't even have to get the picture in just highest reading on smaller antenna.
3: Buy the best wire u can! Wal-mart has some heavier "shielded" wire. Better then just the average wire. This made the difference for me & WCHS. And keep it as short as possble. You loose sgnal strength with every foot of cable.
4: Weather, If it's cloudy it affects the signals. I haven't gotton 8, 11 or 13 since we've been cloudy.
5: Good antenna with a good pre-amp are a must! I have this anteena, http://www.antennasdirect.com/DB8_HD_Antenna.html with a Channel Master pre-amp.

I hope some of this helps you out.

I just ordered Dish Service and am canceling the D* Service so I can get the Locals in HD. From what I understand, the PQ isn't quite as good with Dish as it is with D*, but I'm OK with that...as long as it's not extremely noticeable.

I was researching a bit and found this topic. I have been with Suddenlink, we pay about 104 dollars a month for 1 dvr, family tier and hbo, starz and cinemax. Currently I have a Directv installer coming in the morning.

Part of my concern with any dish is that weather can block the signal. It isnt common but still annoying so I have been researching ways to have a backup.

I lived in Southern WV for most of my life and was always about 40+miles away from a station. Needless to say my experience with antennas has not been pleasant. I moved to Hurricane a few years ago and noticed how I could pick up channels even without an antenna.

I was experimenting a bit today. I took a piece of coax, put aluminum foil on it and could get channel 8 and 12 which I think are abc and fox perfect. Wsaz was a bit fuzzy and channel 13 wowk wasnt viewable. I was not using a digital receiver or tuner.

I came here and someone stated the 2 major transmitters were in Ona and St. Albans, so I am just about in between. I don't really want to put up an outside antenna so started researching a few indoor ones.

I went to Walmart and bought the Phillips Mant 940 (says outside/inside but no way it would last in the elements) for 38 dollars and a digital converter. Got home put it on my entertainment center, didnt use the included preamp and immediately got 5 channels, this time I used a digital converter. I was missing the WSAZ and WOWk channels. So I played around a bit, put it on a top shelf, hooked up the preamp and now I am getting 10 channels, all show about 50-60 percent. I need to clean everything up a bit, I can remove about 2 splitters. I now get WOWK, WCHS, WSAZ, My Z, WVAH, Ion, a worship channel and 2 more but I forget their name. I don't think I am getting a CW.

So now I am tempted to just get expanded basic from Suddenlink and forget about Directv.

I just ordered Dish Service and am canceling the D* Service so I can get the Locals in HD. From what I understand, the PQ isn't quite as good with Dish as it is with D*, but I'm OK with that...as long as it's not extremely noticeable.

Does Dish have contracts to carry the local subs of the big 4 networks in HD?

Does Dish have contracts to carry the local subs of the big 4 networks in HD?

Aren't you the one that posted about Charleston/Huntington being added on 11/19? Wouldn't that mean they have contracts in place if they look to have the channels available on 11/19, or am I missing something??

Yeah I posted the URL to that post on dbstalk that said they have Charleston/"Fat City" locals. I have no idea if that means they'll have ALL the locals or not.

Per Dish's lookup for Local stations, WCHS and WVAH are now live.

WCHS - channel 5200
WVAH - channel 5203

I wonder why no WSAZ or WOWK?? Just my luck as I can pick up WCHS and WVAH with an indoor antenna inside my house with ease.

EDIT: over at dbstalk, someone in Charleston posted that WOWK was on channel 5201. Still not sure about WSAZ-HD. Dish Network's website still shows only WCHS and WVAH for HD

HNG 5200 WCHS{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 8
TO 5200 WCHS{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 8

CHNG 5201 WOWK{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 13
TO 5201 WOWK{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 13

CHNG 5203 WVAH{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 11
TO 5203 WVAH{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 11

CHNG 7317 WSAZ{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 3
TO 7317 WSAZ{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 3

CHNG 7319 WQCW{PORTSMOUTH, OH} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 30
TO 7319 WQCW{PORTSMOUTH, OH} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 30

CHNG 7321 WPBY{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 33
TO 7321 WPBY{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 33

Did dish add my z

Did dish add my z

I don't believe they are doing any Subchannels at all. However, WSAZ hasn't been added anyway as far as I know.

To update everybody. Dish network locals are on in HD for WOWK, WVAH & WCHS. WSAZ is not available as of yet. Hopefully it will be added soon.

I looked yesterday and today...and im not getting either...I've had Dish HD for over a year now. I type is both numbers and goes directly to 5425 (Fox OH)


Per Dish's lookup for Local stations, WCHS and WVAH are now live.

WCHS - channel 5200
WVAH - channel 5203

I wonder why no WSAZ or WOWK?? Just my luck as I can pick up WCHS and WVAH with an indoor antenna inside my house with ease.

EDIT: over at dbstalk, someone in Charleston posted that WOWK was on channel 5201. Still not sure about WSAZ-HD. Dish Network's website still shows only WCHS and WVAH for HD

HNG 5200 WCHS{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 8
TO 5200 WCHS{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 8

CHNG 5201 WOWK{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 13
TO 5201 WOWK{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 13

CHNG 5203 WVAH{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 11
TO 5203 WVAH{CHARLESTON, WV} MPEG4 HD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE HD MAP 11

CHNG 7317 WSAZ{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 3
TO 7317 WSAZ{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 3

CHNG 7319 WQCW{PORTSMOUTH, OH} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 30
TO 7319 WQCW{PORTSMOUTH, OH} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 30

CHNG 7321 WPBY{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w UNAVAIL HIDE MAP 33
TO 7321 WPBY{HUNTINGTON, WV} MPEG4 SD Tp 8 EchoStar 8 77w AVAIL HIDE MAP 33

Yea for me, looks like I need another Dish to get my local HDs. Get it for free with a 2 year commit or pay $99 and get it. My contract is up in Jan. and the Rep said, existing customers can get on the HD only packages on Feb. 9th....so Im gonna wait it out til then, cut my bill in half, and hopefully then, all the locals (NBC and CBS) will be up by then.