That could be it. I receive WKRC via OTA. ;)It looks HORRIBLE via OTA as well.

It looks HORRIBLE via OTA as well.

Agreed.

In other news, it was announced Universal Sports is going HD 1/1/2012 and it will cease to be available OTA.

It looks HORRIBLE via OTA as well.

Agreed.

In other news, it was announced Universal Sports is going HD 1/1/2012 and it will cease to be available OTA.
Damn...I feel bad for you guys. OTA here is B-E-A-UTIFUL.:cool:

Agreed.

In other news, it was announced Universal Sports is going HD 1/1/2012 and it will cease to be available OTA.

There goes another free OTA subchannel. :( It looks like WBQC will go down from 5 down to 4.

Agreed.

In other news, it was announced Universal Sports is going HD 1/1/2012 and it will cease to be available OTA.NBC owned Versus is also being re-named to NBC Sports Network. I'm a little surprised that NBC/Comcast is not combining the two channels.

I'll miss Universal Sports a lot, but I was continually frustrated with the terrible picture quality.

Also sorry to let them know that I will not be moving to the broken cable/satellite pay tv model with them.

WKOI (TBN) Channel 43 - are they off the air? I haven't been able to get them since Friday evening OTA. Note I still receive all the Dayton and Cincinnati stations with both my attic and roof-mount antennas and nothing has really changed. I know they have a CP - just wondering if they are on very reduced power and/or off air. Thanks.

WKOI holds an STA to operate at reduced power from an aux antenna while they move their digital antenna to the top of the tower (replacing the analog antenna).

I have no inside information, but that could have something to do with it.

- Trip

WKOI holds an STA to operate at reduced power from an aux antenna while they move their digital antenna to the top of the tower (replacing the analog antenna).

I have no inside information, but that could have something to do with it.

- Trip


You may be right - looks like the CP is to go up another 20' or so and increase power by 100kw. They already cover the Cincinnati/Dayton market very well. This should really improve the signal (not that it was that bad).

On a related note I called Daystar in Texas to inquire about Channel 36. They informed me that tower work would begin before year's end but didn't have a firm date on either DT36 or DT24 (WLWD) in Dayton.

Thanks Trip!

We watched the news on WKRC last night (there was football on WLW) and the PQ was okay.
Of course, there isn't much movement on a newscast. But their lack of true DD still audio irks me.

This drives me crazy. Why they haven't fixed this issue is beyond me.

Bill

WKOI holds an STA to operate at reduced power from an aux antenna while they move their digital antenna to the top of the tower (replacing the analog antenna).

I have no inside information, but that could have something to do with it.

- Trip

Confimed by WKOI channel 43 engineer. The tower crew have been working last week - and will finish later this week - on moving their digital antenna to the top of the tower and then increasing power from 500kw to 600kw.

WKOI holds an STA to operate at reduced power from an aux antenna while they move their digital antenna to the top of the tower (replacing the analog antenna).

It looks like TV Fool is using this STA in their "pending" view for digital stations.

They informed me that tower work would begin before year's end...

Remember that they're going to be on the WKRC tower running at only 9 kW, but will be much higher than if they were going to stay on WLWT's tower (455.4 meters vs. 498.5 meters above mean sea level, WKRC's antenna is at 305 meters AMSL).

New subchannel in Dayton 9/26/11?
Looks like "Bounce TV" should be on the air in Dayton this Monday @ 12noon on WBDT 26.2 Cincinnati, TBD.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMAS 27, 30, 43, 60, 62
LIN TV will carry the proposed broadcast network for African Americans in Indianapolis, Hartford-New Haven, Norfolk, Dayton and Mobile-Pensacola for a projected 50% clearance at launch this fall.

New subchannel in Dayton 9/26/11?
Looks like "Bounce TV" should be on the air in Dayton this Monday @ 12noon on WBDT 26.2 Cincinnati, TBD.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMAS 27, 30, 43, 60, 62
LIN TV will carry the proposed broadcast network for African Americans in Indianapolis, Hartford-New Haven, Norfolk, Dayton and Mobile-Pensacola for a projected 50% clearance at launch this fall.That's the channel replacing ThisTV on WXIX 19-2, isn't it? Oh yay.

ThisTV will have to find another station unless WXIX moves them to 19.3 or puts Bounce there.

That's the channel replacing ThisTV on WXIX 19-2, isn't it? Oh yay.

Doesn't mention Cincinnati, just Dayton, so I doubt WXIX is adding any subchannels and THIS is staying put. Now maybe CH45 out of Dayton is dropping THIS but I doubt it, since it is CH26 that is adding it. Currently, CH26 has no subchannels.;)

ThisTV will have to find another station unless WXIX moves them to 19.3 or puts Bounce there.

I don't understand this comment???

Has anyone heard from WXIX whether they're dropping This, moving it, or putting Bounce on 19-3? I know they're adding Bounce, and the Bounce website says 19-2, but it also says WBTV 3-2 when WBTV is adding it on 3-3, so I don't consider it to be reliable beyond noting which stations will have it on any subchannel.

- Trip

Has anyone heard from WXIX whether they're dropping This, moving it, or putting Bounce on 19-3? I know they're adding Bounce, and the Bounce website says 19-2, but it also says WBTV 3-2 when WBTV is adding it on 3-3, so I don't consider it to be reliable beyond noting which stations will have it on any subchannel.

- Trip

Saw Elliott Block (WKRP) Saturday at the Voice of America/Cincinnati Broadcasting Museum and he said WXIX will add Bounce TV in January 2012 when their contract with ThisTV is completed. According to Kiesewetter's blog, Channel 19 will drop ThisTV on 19.2 and add Bounce TV in January. I hope that's not true and they add Bounce TV on 19.3. I personally enjoy This TV even though I guess I could watch on WRGT 45.2 when they don't show MyNetwork TV (yes, it's still in business - LOL) Stay tuned!

Doesn't mention Cincinnati, just Dayton, so I doubt WXIX is adding any subchannels and THIS is staying put. Now maybe CH45 out of Dayton is dropping THIS but I doubt it, since it is CH26 that is adding it. Currently, CH26 has no subchannels.;)

Yes, they will add Bounce TV to WXIX in January 2012. Here's a link to the article about all Raycom stations.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/120172

Yes, they will add Bounce TV to WXIX in January 2012. Here's a link to the article about all Raycom stations.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/120172

Confirmed from Operations at WXIX Channel 19 - they WILL be dropping ThisTV on 19.2 and adding Bounce TV in January. No plans to add a 3rd subchannel anytime soon. :(

Saw Elliott Block (WKRP) Saturday at the Voice of America/Cincinnati Broadcasting Museum...

I hope he's doing well. Has he sold his stations yet?

I hope he's doing well. Has he sold his stations yet?

No. Extremely difficult in these economic times.
We briefly talked about ION affiliation and he said they (ION) want to focus more on cable/satellite vs. on OTA stations.
On a personal note, I really hope he doesn't "pull the plug" on his stations but also see his point that it's not a good business decision to lose money on a daily basis. He doesn't think anyone watches his stations (I disagree) and no one will notice if they suddenly goes "dark".
Elliott, in my opinion, is a respected, local broadcast pioneer from the 90's and today since he really gave it ALL to put these stations on the air - and keep them there.
I'm considering starting a Facebook page to help build support for WKRP/WBQC - may not do anything to change the situation but at least a vehicle to express appreciation for his efforts.
With more and more people "cutting the cord" and going to a combination of OTA & internet video streaming, better times may be ahead for independent, OTA. Espcially in a Top 50 medium market. Good luck Elliott - hang in there!

Yes, they will add Bounce TV to WXIX in January 2012. Here's a link to the article about all Raycom stations.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/120172

I don't understand why they are dropping ThisTV, which is a very solid channel. Some of the movies are crappy, but that's kind of what you expect from a free channel anyway. In my opinion, this is one of the best subchannels out there both in terms of production value and content. I hope someone else like Star 64/Sinclair picks them up.

On a personal note, I really hope he doesn't "pull the plug" on his stations but also see his point that it's not a good business decision to lose money on a daily basis. He doesn't think anyone watches his stations (I disagree) and no one will notice if they suddenly goes "dark".

...

With more and more people "cutting the cord" and going to a combination of OTA & internet video streaming, better times may be ahead for independent, OTA. Espcially in a Top 50 medium market. Good luck Elliott - hang in there!

I don't disagree in theory, but how long are these LPTV operators supposed to wait? These stations have been around since the 1980's and have had problems with being on cable since then. A generation is a long time to work at something for practically no return.

That said, I wonder if the answer for these operations is being live and local. Almost everything is canned and prerecorded these days--even radio. I'm wondering if having a live VJ bantering between breaks (kind of like the old afternoon movie hosts) would be enough of a "hook" to get people to watch.

Most TV content is boring, would that be enough to make it interesting? I know I'm sometimes mesmerized by Bruce Drennan on Sports Time Ohio just sitting in front of a camera taking phone calls.

I don't understand why they are dropping ThisTV, which is a very solid channel. Some of the movies are crappy, but that's kind of what you expect from a free channel anyway. In my opinion, this is one of the best subchannels out there both in terms of production value and content. I hope someone else like Star 64/Sinclair picks them up.

100% agree - ThisTV is my favorite subchannel. Lot's of movie content from the MGM movie collection and programmed professionally. Hopefully someone in the Cincinnati market will pick it up when WXIX drops it for Bounce TV. Note: I think it comes down to cost to carry the channel vs. marketable (sales) benefits. Example: WLWT uses MEtv to help increase sales on WLWT NBC by basically "throwing" in the subchannel as a bonus buy.
C'mon WSTR, WKRC - please add ThisTV next year.

Thought I heard somewhere that WSTR was already adding the country music channel as a sub.

Thought I heard somewhere that WSTR was already adding the country music channel as a sub.

http://www.rabbitears.info/oddsandends.php?request=grid

About half of Sinclair stations have put The Country Network on the air as a subchannel. Star 64 was supposed to go "live" this Fall on 64.3 but when I called them they didn't even know about it. ?????????? Stay tuned!

Around 2:20pm today, noticed that I lost signal on both WLWT and WCET (OTA). WLWT came back after a minute or two. WCET is still not showing up at all as I write this. It very well could be me, but I find it interesting that I would lose signal on those two stations (while all the other stations are coming in full strength), and they are both on the same tower. Anyone else?

Update: WCET back at full strength at 2:36pm, then dropped for a second, then back steady at full strength.

Around 2:20pm today, noticed that I lost signal on both WLWT and WCET (OTA). WLWT came back after a minute or two. WCET is still not showing up at all as I write this. It very well could be me, but I find it interesting that I would lose signal on those two stations (while all the other stations are coming in full strength), and they are both on the same tower. Anyone else?

Update: WCET back at full strength at 2:36pm, then dropped for a second, then back steady at full strength.

Could have just been a power issue in the area (all those UC students back in Clifton, overloading the grid with their computers, studying... ;) ), and it just took a minute for the backup generator to kick in and transmitter to warm up again. I wouldn't be surprised if WCET doesn't have backup power, given their tight budget right now. I wasn't watching then so I can't say if it was on their end or yours, but it would make sense if they both went out together.

WKRC appears to be having satellite reception issues with CBS during the Dolphins/Browns game. Lots of break ups, then lost picture, and now technical difficulty screen. Their signal to me has remained solid.

A quick check of WHIO and it seems they aren't having any problems there.

Regarding various things I've "noticed" about some of the LP stations in the area the past couple of years :

If the Spectrum Grab/Incentive auction thing happens, for those who might choose to relinquish spectrum, I wonder whether or not LP's will be able to get $ from "their" spectrum ...

Hey all. Question. Right now I have a uhf and a vhf antenna and live on the East side of Cincinnati, basically in Amelia. I've got my antennas pointed at the down town Cincinnatiarea and receive great reception. Until recently (the last couple months) I was able to get channels 25.# but not I can not. I believe these are broadcasted from wkrp tv.

Has something changed with that station?

Is anyone else having the same problem?

I am going to play with my antenna tonight and see if I can fine tune it. Maybe it has moved some.

In addition I wanted to ask, if I have my uhf and vhf antennas pointed at downtown Cincinnati, would I be able to pick up another antenna and point it at Dayton and run it in the same cable line to get additional programming?

Would that give me content that I am not getting in Cincinnati?

Thanks for any comments or suggestions. I appreciate it.

has ch. 43 completed their analog antenna replacement and turned up the power on their new digital antenna? Here in the sharonville area i have not noticed any difference or is the wet weather complicating the antenna changeover.

what is the best distribution amplifier you can buy for dtv using an outdoor antenna? Also a friend of mine lives at the bottom of numerous hills in brookville indiana and can barely receive any tv. he receives some out of dayton and a few cincinnati channels. would an antennacraft u4000 antenna work better than the outdoor uhf vhf antenna he has now or are the hills the problem and not the antenna?

VHF "bends" around hills better than UHF. He'll still need VHF for WKRC but otherwise the 4 or 8 bay UHF antennas seem to work well. Higher is usually better for the antenna so as high as he can mount it is good.

For dist. amp I don't have a model but lower noise levels are good.

Distribution amp: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EKCGT8/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000066E6Y&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KBX15GMV8XY9K24W4WN

The U4000 is great. Likely better than his current old cobo antenna. But it won't work miracles. As jimp said, put it as high as he can.

has ch. 43 completed their analog antenna replacement and turned up the power on their new digital antenna? Here in the sharonville area i have not noticed any difference or is the wet weather complicating the antenna changeover.

No. Not yet due to the continued wet weather/rain. WKOI told me it should be completed by mid-week (next week) since the forecast will be more favorable.

They also seemed excited about the tower height/power increase - even if it will only give them an additional 2 miles contour that translates into over 200,000+ additional population. Not bad from their tower location near Oxford, Oh.

Need technical confirmation on a digital signal question. Is it true that DTV signals travel a little better and overal reception/signal strength is slightly improved in the winter vs. summer seasons? Note: I'm aware of the trees/leaves issues but just wondering if anything else to confirm this theory. Thanks!

Need technical confirmation on a digital signal question. Is it true that DTV signals travel a little better and overal reception/signal strength is slightly improved in the winter vs. summer seasons? Note: I'm aware of the trees/leaves issues but just wondering if anything else to confirm this theory. Thanks! As you mentioned, there is the tree leaves issue. But, tropospheric conditions are usually better during the warmer and more humid months of the summer, and that's what helps you get reception of stations that are not line-of-sight and you usually wouldn't get. The "DX" world is relatively "dead" during the winter months (not ALWAYS, but usually).

WKRC has finially added 5.1 audio this morning. It sounds really good too. Congrats to WKRC after many years of promises.

good deal.. now just fix the bandwith starving and we will be rolling!

Better late than never! :D

Anyone else having trouble getting 25.# in on the east side. I'm in Amelia. Did they make changes or something? I used to have them now after rescanning I don't.

WKRC has finially added 5.1 audio this morning. It sounds really good too. Congrats to WKRC after many years of promises.

Thanks xmitterman!:D I'm sure that we'll let you how things sound throughout the next week, especially with the college and pro football games this weekend.

good deal.. now just fix the bandwith starving and we will be rolling!

See I didn't wanna say that for fear of sounding ungrateful. But I gotta agree. Pixelating sports was the more pressing issue IMO. Still, its nice to have the 5 speakers all lit on the AVR.

I finally got my antenna hooked up and going. I posted back in July. Took me long enough, huh? I ended up going with the Antennacraft u8000 and a Wingard preamp. I actually hooked up last weekend, but wasn't getting any signal. It's connected to a Dell Zino so we can record stuff and stream other things. I scanned all of the channels on only 1 came back with any signal at all. I figured something was wrong, but I didn't get a chance to look at again until today.

That's when my scene from National Lampoon's Christmas happened. I put the antenna in the attic. I went up in the attic today, flipped on the light switch, tightened things up, went back downstairs and had a great signal on most stations.

Went back up to the attic, flip the light switch off, go back down, and it's not working. Go back upstairs, check things over, leave the light on, and it's working. Go back to close the ladder, flip the switch and the tv quits again. That's when I figured the light switch was powering the outlet where the preamp is plugged in.

Just call me Clark W. Griswold.

Even though it's in the attic I'm getting 5 out of 5 for all of the Cincinnati stations except channel 12. I think we're picking up the Dayton PBS station too and maybe another. I didn't pay enough attention because of needing to get back to work.

Congrats Clark and welcome to the world of free HDTV programming!

I ended up going with the Antennacraft u8000 and a Wingard preamp.

...

Even though it's in the attic I'm getting 5 out of 5 for all of the Cincinnati stations except channel 12. I think we're picking up the Dayton PBS station too and maybe another.

The Antennacraft u8000 isn't particularly designed to receive VHF (WKRC is on physical channel 12). On the other hand, WKRC has been easy to pull in on VHF relative to WCPO when it was on physical channel 10 less than a year ago. Keep tweaking!

Dayton PBS... 16? 14's on WXIX's tower in Price Hill.

The Antennacraft u8000 isn't particularly designed to receive VHF (WKRC is on physical channel 12). On the other hand, WKRC has been easy to pull in on VHF relative to WCPO when it was on physical channel 10 less than a year ago. Keep tweaking!

Dayton PBS... 16? 14's on WXIX's tower in Price Hill.

I figured I'd be happy to pick up 12 at all, but most of the reviews I read said that it would pick up high VHFs. The signal isn't quite as good as the others, but watched a little this evening and didn't have any issues.

You're right about PBS. It was 14, not 16. I'll have to run another scan to see what we're picking up and pay more attention. I'm really happy to have it working. Should have done this a long time ago.

You're right about PBS. It was 14, not 16. I'll have to run another scan to see what we're picking up and pay more attention.

Have you posted a tvfool.com (http://www.tvfool.com/) plot here yet?

Have you posted a tvfool.com (http://www.tvfool.com/) plot here yet?

Here it is - http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03f3f7fd1cf2da

I still need to run another scan but so far I couldn't be happier.

Here it is - http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03f3f7fd1cf2da

I still need to run another scan but so far I couldn't be happier.

Too bad you can't put it outside. Most of your channels are yellow, so there's a good chance that bad weather could foul your reception while your antenna is in your attic.

is ch.43 now operating with the new antenna and power upgrade?

is ch.43 now operating with the new antenna and power upgrade?


Yes. Digital antenna raised to top of the tower and broadcasting at new, full power. Not a huge change, but still improved existing service area contour a little.

Not sure exactly when it started, but checking tonight, WCPO is no longer letterboxing the LWN network content on 9-3. Nice to see SD widescreen!

Too bad you can't put it outside. Most of your channels are yellow, so there's a good chance that bad weather could foul your reception while your antenna is in your attic.

An outside antenna didn't meet with acceptance from the wife. So far, even in bad weather, the reception has been good. I still need to adjust it a little, probably 10 degrees or so because I goofed up when I first put it up.

I also want to get another tv tuner for the computer that we're using as an HTPC. I wish we would have done this years ago.

How did the TV stations fare in the nationwide EAS test?

I was at work, so I turned on my radio to 700 WLW at 2:00 PM. After the alert tones sounded there was about twenty seconds of silence. The silence was broken from what appeared to be the audio of a public service ad that appeared to push the ideas of preparing for an emergency and "duck and cover". (No, it wasn't Bert the Turtle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I)!) The ad was much too long and the closing tones cut it off. I switched to some of the other AM radio stations during this time (550, 1360, and 1530) and they were either silent or staticy.

Bizarre...

Bizarre is right...I was listening to AM 700 as well and the PBS show 'Caiyou' (sp?) broke the silence...nothing about anything to do with preparing for an emergency. Actually, Caiyou was going on a camping trip with his dad and grand dad and the little wuss was starting to miss his mommy. ;)

Insight Cable did the test exactly at 2PM. All of my DVR's had the National EAS Test message on the screen for 30 seconds, but the audio was just white noise.

Bizarre is right...I was listening to AM 700 as well and the PBS show 'Caiyou' (sp?) broke the silence...nothing about anything to do with preparing for an emergency. Actually, Caiyou was going on a camping trip with his dad and grand dad and the little wuss was starting to miss his mommy. ;)

Since I don't have any children, my knowledge of PBS kids shows stops at Sesame Street when the adults finally realized Mr. Snuffleupagus was real and not a figment of Big Bird's imagination. :)

Yes, this does sound a little more familiar. They were talking about dangers in the woods (preparing for emergencies) and a snail hiding in its shell (duck and cover) and I was trying to figure out how this tied into the test... Why would we hear audio from a PBS station? (At least we didn't hear Lady Gaga like they did in other markets!)

did they also test the outdoor sirens because i was outside working and dont recall hearing them. If they only tested tv and radio signals then this wasnt a national test.

did they also test the outdoor sirens because i was outside working and dont recall hearing them. If they only tested tv and radio signals then this wasnt a national test.

LOL...Yes, it WAS a national test of the emergency broadcasting system. Sirens are locally activated ONLY. ;)

Are all radio stations required to participate in the eas system? Back when I was in radio there were certain stations that did not participate in the ebs.

Seems like this test was an epic fail. The media sure has covered it up.

Are all radio stations required to participate in the eas system? Back when I was in radio there were certain stations that did not participate in the ebs.

Don't all the stations have to either say that they're either an EBS station and will stay on the air with official information or are going off the air and direct the audience where to tune?

Seems like this test was an epic fail. The media sure has covered it up.

I've been having fun tracking down the fails on YouTube. :D

Seems like this test was an epic fail. The media sure has covered it up.

I'm not sure where the fail occurred but it was at the national level.
[insert the name of your favorite federal agency here]

The tone triggering seemed to ripple through the system OK but the audio of the actual alert got lost before it got to the primary stations.

The way it's supposed to work is the audio of the national "alert" is diseminated to the primary stations [for Cincinnati these are WLW-AM and WARM-FM] and the other stations in the area retransmit that audio. Neither station was receiving and retransmitting any audio so the rest of us heard and relayed the silence.

I also don't know what the mechanism is for getting the audio to them since I don't work for them.

This system works just fine locally several times a year as we are alerted to weather watches & warnings this way. In that case we provide our own video/audio alerting instead of retransmitting relayed audio.

We're not "covering up" anything. Maybe [insert the name of your favorite federal agency here] is...

Oh, no. WSTR is stretching 4:3 SD "Big Bang Theory" to 16:9. I hope its a temporary mistake... the tornado watch alert is on screen so maybe that is related.

The way it's supposed to work is the audio of the national "alert" is diseminated to the primary stations [for Cincinnati these are WLW-AM and WARM-FM] and the other stations in the area retransmit that audio. Neither station was receiving and retransmitting any audio so the rest of us heard and relayed the silence.

WLW started playing some PBS kids show audio. (How in the world did that happen?) Oh well, I guess they'll get the kinks out eventually if they do a Federal test every year. (The day after Election Day worked fine. Make it a new tradition!)

P.S. Dolby 5.1 sounds fantastic! :D

I gotta say it does make the NFL games more enjoyable. CBS seems to have a better mic setup for the background crowd noise. I was always one of those who wasn't too concerned about Channel 12's lack of decent sound.

It all backfired on me yesterday when my grandkids were over and clear as a bell out of the back speakers I hear loud as hell some guy screaming "f*ck you Cutler" during da Bears game.

Normally I would have chuckled.

I gotta say it does make the NFL games more enjoyable. CBS seems to have a better mic setup for the background crowd noise. I was always one of those who wasn't too concerned about Channel 12's lack of decent sound.

It all backfired on me yesterday when my grandkids were over and clear as a bell out of the back speakers I hear loud as hell some guy screaming "f*ck you Cutler" during da Bears game.Normally I would have chuckled.

:eek:Ha! I heard that too! I thought I imagined him saying that! ;)

There was a notice in my cable bill that ThisTV will be replaced by Bounce TV on 01/01/12. I wonder if anyone else will pick ThisTV up?

I'm not too impressed with ch.26-2 (bounce tv dayton). you never know whats coming up because their programming guide only says dtv programming. I heard Universal Sports subchannel on low power ch.25 is becoming a cable only channel in january maby that channel could be replaced by this tv. You could also watch this tv on 45-2 out of dayton if you have a decent outdoor antenna facing north. I now the antennacraft u4000 antenna works great because ch.9 was field testing antennas for reception in dry ridge (ch.9 engineer lives there) right after the digital changeover back when they were on ch.10 and that antenna was picking up all the dayton and cincinnati digital channels with no problem.

I'm too far south of Cincinnati to pull in 45.2 WRGT consistently. I emailed ThisTv and I'm waiting for their reply. I hope WSTR adds them.

Wasn't even aware BOUNCE was on 26-2. LOL

I'm not too impressed with ch.26-2 (bounce tv dayton). you never know whats coming up because their programming guide only says dtv programming.

That was rather frustrating but they've finally got the program guide working.

Bounce is a reasonably decent channel but do they have to keep showing "To Kill a Mockingbird?" Good movie but c'mon. :)

Finally got a channel master DVR but i need a better indoor antennae. Any mohu leaf owners in Cincinnati?

I get Dayton's Channel 45 as well as I do Channel 7. and I live just up the hill from Cleves.

Something funny just happened to me. I did a rescan so I could get WBDT's channel 26-2 and check out Bounce-TV. The result is I not only picked up that channel but also Columbus, OH WSYX channel 6-1 and 6-2 THIS-TV/MYTV in a strong yellow strength (64-68). I was able to pick up WTLW Channel 44-1 & 44-1 in Lima, OH (religous, family and local sports) for a little while and WBNS 10-1 and 10-2 also in Columbus although it was too weak to pull in. I have my Atennacraft U4000 with a booster pointed in the fixed general direction of Columbus but only because I want to pick up the low power Cincy channel 25 stations as well as the Dayton stations.


I'm assuming this is just a freak thing and not counting on any of these stations, even the channel 6 stations but it is interesting to say the least.

I'm assuming this is just a freak thing and not counting on any of these stations, even the channel 6 stations but it is interesting to say the least.

From reading other threads, it appears we had some significant tropospheric ducting and propagation in our part of the country the other night.

From reading other threads, it appears we had some significant tropospheric ducting and propagation in our part of the country the other night.

The signal strength has pretty much flatlined since the other morning. It was fun.

I recall in the pre-cable days having a similar thing happen to analog TV. A couple of times I was getting a station as far away as Lincoln, Nebraska for a short while. I heard it had something to do with sun spots. A similar thing would happen to CB radios too. They called that "skip". I don't know if there is a connection with what happened the other day but it wouldn't surprise me.

I recall in the pre-cable days having a similar thing happen to analog TV. A couple of times I was getting a station as far away as Lincoln, Nebraska for a short while. I heard it had something to do with sun spots. A similar thing would happen to CB radios too. They called that "skip". I don't know if there is a connection with what happened the other day but it wouldn't surprise me.

I believe these are two different effects.

The high number of sunspots is currently affecting the ionosphere. This results in the HF bands, like the CB radio (27 kHz) and 10 meter (28-29.7 kHz) amateur bands, having their signals propagate across the globe like wild.

The TV skip from Lincoln sounds more like tropospheric ducting, especially if that station was on low VHF (channels 2-6, 54-72 MHz, 76-88 MHz). This is more of an atmospheric effect than an ionospheric effect. It might have been sporadic E too.

Called Daystar today to see when low power ch.36 (formerly TBN) is going to be operational. He said it wasn't in the computer so it probably will be awile. Anybody have any idea if or when they are going to start broadcasting?

Called Daystar today to see when low power ch.36 (formerly TBN) is going to be operational. He said it wasn't in the computer so it probably will be awile. Anybody have any idea if or when they are going to start broadcasting?

The latest status reported here was that they were going to begin their work on the WKRC tower by the end of 2011, so they should be starting soon. They have the green light from the FCC to implement WDYC-LP on RF 36 by 4/13/2013.

anyone know where to buy an reasonably priced over the air dvr (<$200-250)? tivo is reasonable for their OTA dvr but their monthly service fee is outragous (almost $20 month or almost $500 for a lifetime subscription for their dvr unit). MY ideal choice would be a stand alone dvr or even a dvr that receives (free to air) satellite signals with an over the air (atsc tuner) included. was also looking into using my computer as a dvr but that seems like its going to be complicated. it doesn't seem like their are many choices anymore for people who don't want to pay for cable or satellite service.

anyone know where to buy an reasonably priced over the air dvr (<$200-250)? tivo is reasonable for their OTA dvr but their monthly service fee is outragous (almost $20 month or almost $500 for a lifetime subscription for their dvr unit). MY ideal choice would be a stand alone dvr or even a dvr that receives (free to air) satellite signals with an over the air (atsc tuner) included. was also looking into using my computer as a dvr but that seems like its going to be complicated. it doesn't seem like their are many choices anymore for people who don't want to pay for cable or satellite service.

Channel Master makes one (CM-7400), MSRP is $399 but you may me able to find one cheaper. Solid Signal and Amazon look to be out of stock currently so I don't know their price. I've not used it, but it's predecessor (CM-7000PAL) was a very good unit.
I think there's one made by "Brite-View" for $200 on the web, and there are a number of HDD/DVD recorders with ATSC tuners built in reasonably priced, but I'm not sure if they record to the HD in 1080i or not.

As far as FTA, I know the Coolsat 8100 records FTA as well as ATSC.

anyone know where to buy an reasonably priced over the air dvr (<$200-250)?

A lot of folks like this - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657

anyone know where to buy an reasonably priced over the air dvr (<$200-250)?

Im quite happy with my Win7 Media Center. IF I only had a good OTA signal here (1 Cincy channel and I get all of the Dayton HD channels but weather makes it slightly unreliable).

If you like to tinker with PCs you could cobble one together cheap but not what your price range mentions. I'm kinda sorry I didn't get 2 HDHomeruns when I bought mine really cheap, that way I could have the second one attached to the antenna for Dayton. Currently connected to TWC's cheapest basic service for local HD channels only.

For the last 6 years I've been using BeyondTV on a PC I purpose-built for DVR. I don't think you can do this option and get in your price range though.

Too lazy to search the entire thread, but has WKRCDT always been 720p? My ancient Sammy DLP shows it as that for the last month that I know of.

Too lazy to search the entire thread, but has WKRCDT always been 720p? My ancient Sammy DLP shows it as that for the last month that I know of.NO! It's always been 1080i. That would be quite a change.

Just verified with TSReader. It's looks like it's still 1080i.

Elementary Stream PID 49 (0x0031) MPEG-2 Video
MPEG Video: Bitrate 12.316 Mbps Resolution 1920 x 1080i
MPEG Video: Framerate 29.97 fps Aspect Ratio 16:9 Chroma Format 4:2:0

Has anyone noticed that WKRC is now showing some local commercials in HD? I thought I saw The Doctors in HD one morning as well.

Has anyone noticed that WKRC is now showing some local commercials in HD? I thought I saw The Doctors in HD one morning as well.Haven't caught that yet, but WLWT has been doing HD local spots for a while now.

Just verified with TSReader. It's looks like it's still 1080i.

Elementary Stream PID 49 (0x0031) MPEG-2 Video
MPEG Video: Bitrate 12.316 Mbps Resolution 1920 x 1080i
MPEG Video: Framerate 29.97 fps Aspect Ratio 16:9 Chroma Format 4:2:0

Hmmmm ,TV definitely showing it at 720p, next I search for days to find the original remote so I can check the settings. Perhaps the neighborhood gnomes have tinkered with the TV.

Likely your Sammy is a 720p DLP set as virtually all were back in the day. You are seeing what is being displayed, NOT what is input...

Hmmmm ,TV definitely showing it at 720p, next I search for days to find the original remote so I can check the settings. Perhaps the neighborhood gnomes have tinkered with the TV.

Your source is basic cable right? QAM, using the TV's built-in tuner? I verified via ATSC OTA. I don't have cable to verify that, but either way it's most likely the TV. I doubt Time Warner is messing with it.

Of course continue to note that WKRC is still only giving 12Mbps to 1080i HD and it continues to look bad.

Hmmmm ,TV definitely showing it at 720p, next I search for days to find the original remote so I can check the settings. Perhaps the neighborhood gnomes have tinkered with the TV.

It's a 1080i TV. Somebody did fiddle with it and globally set it to 720p. All fixed now :)

I would never have noticed, or cared, except a certain someone likes to turn on the Win7 MC stretch when watching CW or METV. I would come along and find WCPO and WXIX stretched but WLWT and WKRC, both 1080i (I assume?), were not stretched. All of the sudden I noticed that behavior changing and everything was stretched.

In reality, on this TV, both resolutions look exactly the same to me.

Your source is basic cable right? QAM, using the TV's built-in tuner? I verified via ATSC OTA.

Yea, basic clear QAM from TWC except no tuner in it. Tuner is a HDHomerun dual tuner circa 2008 or so connected to a Win7 MC PC. I do have an external ATSC tuner but only get Dayton channels and WSTR-DT. Comes in very handy on Sundays this time of year ;)

If you have a DLP TV then there are only 2 types, 720p or 1080p. Being digital, it cannot display @ 1080i. It can ACCEPT 1080i, but the display MUST show its native resolution and fixed pixle is ALWAYS progressive. CRT is the only technology that can present both p & i, tho p sets are cost prohibitive for consumers.

ALL OTA channels with the exception of FOX and ABC are 1080i. The latter are both 720p.

Yea, I had this very conversation on some forum in 2004 because I asked why it had settings for 1080i and 720p and there was apparently zero difference between them.

The switching stretched channels thing is odd at best. I always simply left it on 1080i and only the 720 channels would be stretched when I switched. Actually, I'd prefer a way to be able to eliminate the stretching altogether but Win7 MC seems to cater to the people who hate black bars.

Yea, I had this very conversation on some forum in 2004 because I asked why it had settings for 1080i and 720p and there was apparently zero difference between them.

The switching stretched channels thing is odd at best. I always simply left it on 1080i and only the 720 channels would be stretched when I switched. Actually, I'd prefer a way to be able to eliminate the stretching altogether but Win7 MC seems to cater to the people who hate black bars.1080i and 720p are the same aspect ratio. I don't understand why there would be any stretching at all...

1080i and 720p are the same aspect ratio. I don't understand why there would be any stretching at all...

Not sure what that has to do with this. Of course they are.

When I had a TWC HD recorder 3-4 years ago if you stretched a 720p channel it seemed to do the same to all the other 720p channels only. Has nothing to do with "same aspect ratio" and more to do with it seems like some settings seem to also change other channels with the same resolution.

Not sure what that has to do with this. Of course they are.

When I had a TWC HD recorder 3-4 years ago if you stretched a 720p channel it seemed to do the same to all the other 720p channels only. Has nothing to do with "same aspect ratio" and more to do with it seems like some settings seem to also change other channels with the same resolution.

OK.... Why would you be "stretching" anything? I'm not sure I'm following. 720p is 16:9 aspect ratio, as is 1080i/p. An HDTV has a 16:9 aspect ratio. 720p and 1080i/p should both fill the screen. There is no stretching involved.

If I may butt in, it's the number of pixels displayed. 1080 is 1920 pixels wide, while 720 is 1280 wide.
TV tuners adjust automatically, but PC video cards will output whatever fixed size is selected.

OK.... Why would you be "stretching" anything? I'm not sure I'm following. 720p is 16:9 aspect ratio, as is 1080i/p. An HDTV has a 16:9 aspect ratio. 720p and 1080i/p should both fill the screen. There is no stretching involved.

Read post #13846 above.

I have a serial stretcher in the house. If they stretch METV, when I come along, and the TV used to be set at 1080i, WCPO (720p) news would irritate me to no end until I realized it was stretched off the screen. 1080i stations were not affected.

Lately, i noticed WKRC was stretched when I turned on the football games. So at this point the serial stretcher was now affecting what I thought was a 1080i station and I asked previously if they had switched.

As it turned out, my global TV settings had been switched from 1080i to 720p, so apparently this was the culprit.

If you have a DLP TV then there are only 2 types, 720p or 1080p. Being digital, it cannot display @ 1080i. It can ACCEPT 1080i, but the display MUST show its native resolution and fixed pixle is ALWAYS progressive. CRT is the only technology that can present both p & i, tho p sets are cost prohibitive for consumers.

Which begs the question: why is there even a setting for it as a display mode? Marketing gimmick?

Both modes look exactly the same except for the stretching behavior.

Funny part about this set is one of the 3 component inputs is "480P only" since that was the DVD spec of the day. I recall switching the dvd player output between 480i and 480p and saw no diference in that either.

What puzzles me the most is how the grandkids even managed to change it in the TV settings. I keep the remote well hidden, and even when they were new these remotes were notorious for being crappy. I did have power failures 2 Sundays in a row during bengals games several weeks ago, perhaps the TV defaulted itself.

Sounds like this is completely a PC issue. The PC should be outputting 1080p (1920x1080) resolution to the TV. The TV should display at that resolution and nothing further is needed by the TV.

The PC should be handling the different resolutions properly. This means resizing all resolutions that are not 1920x1080, and maintining the original aspect ratio. If watching 720p content, the resize should fill the screen. There is no stretch. If watching 4:3 480i/p content, it will be pillar-boxed with black bars on the left and right of the picture. If someone is stretching 480i/p content to make everyone look fat, turn circles into ovals, squares into rectangles, etc., that's stupid, yes, but even if they did that, it should have no effect on 1080i or 720p sourced content.

Also the reason why 720p and 1080i/p settings on your TV don't seem to change the picture is because that setting has no effect on the output resolution of the PC.

Sounds like this is completely a PC issue. The PC should be outputting 1080p (1920x1080) resolution to the TV. The TV should display at that resolution and nothing further is needed by the TV.

The PC should be handling the different resolutions properly. This means resizing all resolutions that are not 1920x1080, and maintining the original aspect ratio. If watching 720p content, the resize should fill the screen. There is no stretch. If watching 4:3 480i/p content, it will be pillar-boxed with black bars on the left and right of the picture. If someone is stretching 480i/p content to make everyone look fat, turn circles into ovals, squares into rectangles, etc., that's stupid, yes, but even if they did that, it should have no effect on 1080i or 720p sourced content.

Also the reason why 720p and 1080i/p settings on your TV don't seem to change the picture is because that setting has no effect on the output resolution of the PC.

I've had this behavior much longer than I ever had the PC connected. Many cable boxes and digital recorders that had tuners behaved the same way.

Has anyone noticed that WKRC is now showing some local commercials in HD? I thought I saw The Doctors in HD one morning as well.

I just noticed tonite that WKRC had Entertainment Tonight in HD. I think before they didn't have the equipment to do syndicated shows in HD but now it looks like they do.

Now, I'm waiting for Star64 to install the proper HD equipment for syndicated programming for the new year.

I just noticed tonite that WKRC had Entertainment Tonight in HD. I think before they didn't have the equipment to do syndicated shows in HD but now it looks like they do.

Also noticed a WKRC news promo in HD recently.

From John Kiesewetter, TV Channels Bounce Around On Jan. 1 (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2011/12/22/tv-channel-bounce-around-on-jan-1/).

In short,


Bounce comes to 19.2.
This TV moves from 19.2 to 25.2
NBC Universal Sports leaves 25.2 for good.

I was hoping This TV would be on 25.1 since that is the only channel Insight Cable carries but I'm happy they found a new home.

I hope THIS will help Channel 25 (WKRP) be more viable...

From John Kiesewetter, TV Channels Bounce Around On Jan. 1 (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2011/12/22/tv-channel-bounce-around-on-jan-1/).

In short,


Bounce comes to 19.2.
This TV moves from 19.2 to 25.2
NBC Universal Sports leaves 25.2 for good.


Good that This TV is not leaving OTA

Of all the channels involved in the switch, the only one we watched was NBC Universal Sports. My wife is an "Olympics junkie" and records everything related to swimming, snowboarding, gymnastics, and figure skating. She's gonna be bummed... and considering that NBCU probably would have been one of the alternate carriers of programming during the upcoming London games this year, I hate that we're losing that.

Of all the channels involved in the switch, the only one we watched was NBC Universal Sports. My wife is an "Olympics junkie" and records everything related to swimming, snowboarding, gymnastics, and figure skating. She's gonna be bummed... and considering that NBCU probably would have been one of the alternate carriers of programming during the upcoming London games this year, I hate that we're losing that.

I like Universal Sports as well. Moving from OTA to cable/satellite does have one major upside -- the broadcasts will be made available in HD. The OTA SD picture quality just wasn't up to par.

I like Universal Sports as well. Moving from OTA to cable/satellite does have one major upside -- the broadcasts will be made available in HD. The OTA SD picture quality just wasn't up to par.
The upside is that it will be HD. The downside is that we (those on this forum because we're OTA-only) won't get it. :D

I agree that the SD was poor quality but my wife didn't care....

I think (but am not 100% sure) that Universal Sports isn't going to be "new" channel on cable, but rather that Versus is going to be re-branded as NBC Sports Network, and they're going to have the content rights that Universal Sports had. Indeed it's a shame though. As bad as the picture quality was, it was a very nice channel to have.

No, there will be NBC Sports and Universal Sports on cable. From what I understand, at least.

- Trip

Anybody else having reception issues with ch.7. Since ch.7 installed their new digital antenna last year (my parents) have been having a hard time receiving ch. 7. Here in sharonville ch.7 comes in at (80% signal at my house) vs. (30% signal strength at my parents house - 3 blocks away). Every other dayton station comes in perfectly. Both houses have antennacraft u4000 antennas with amplifiers that I installed 3 years ago. I don't want to relocate the outside antenna at the parents house. Could water in their antenna transformer be causing these problems or is something else like ch.7 metal tower causing the signal problem in their direction.

Looks like WBQC 25-2 changed to This-TV at midnight whereas Fox 19-2 kept it on until 8:00 before "Bounce"-ing. I've always liked This-TV and this weekend they have been showing the Marx Brothers, WC Fields and Hope & Crosby movies which I like. Glad WBQC picked it up even if it was at the expense of Universal Sports.

Anybody else having reception issues with ch.7. Since ch.7 installed their new digital antenna last year (my parents) have been having a hard time receiving ch. 7. Here in sharonville ch.7 comes in at (80% signal at my house) vs. (30% signal strength at my parents house - 3 blocks away). Every other dayton station comes in perfectly. Both houses have antennacraft u4000 antennas with amplifiers that I installed 3 years ago. I don't want to relocate the outside antenna at the parents house. Could water in their antenna transformer be causing these problems or is something else like ch.7 metal tower causing the signal problem in their direction.
I replied to your post in the Dayton thread as well, but yeah double check all connections and even the aiming. Even though the other channels are coming in, weird things can happen... You said you don't want to relocate it, but could you raise or lower it at all? Sometimes that helps too.

I think the reason my parents are experiencing ch. 7 reception problems is I275 and US 42 exit is approx. 1 mile north of my parents location and 3 office buildings (5-7 stories tall) are probably blocking the signal (dayton broadcast towers are almost due north). But i will change out the transformer and adjust the antenna height and try adjusting the direction once it warms up a little.

Hi:

New here, technologically challenged user. Going on the theory that the only stupid question is one that isn't asked, I'm coming here with a query. Here goes:

I have a Sony Bravia HDTV and Time Warner HD cable. Also a Samsung DVD/VHS combo unit. The Time Warner cable guy installed these as follows: (1) HDMI cable from DVD/VHS combo directly to the TV; (2) component cables from cable box to DVD/VHS combo unit and then from combo unit to the TV. The way it was working during that time was that only DVDs would play, tapes would not play. But all television channels – HD or SD – appeared full screen. And I swear there was no distortion of the image on the SD channels.

Then the other day one of my kids wanted to watch an old tape we had laying around. So I reconnected as follows: (1) HDMI cable from DVD/VHS combo; (2) HDMI cable directly from cable box to television; (3) composite cables from DVD/VHS combo unit to the TV. Now the combo unit will play tapes as well as DVDs. But when we watch television, the SD channels are now showing with black bars on the sides.

I can use the Stretch function so that the SD channels fill the screen, but the pictures are distorted. Same with the Zoom function.

Is anyone familiar with this and know how to get the setting back the way it was? I’ve had a Time Warner guy out to look things over, but he simply set the Stretch function and said that was the only way to get full-screen SD channels.

Perhaps I’m simply not remembering right, but I don’t remember the full-screen SD channels looking distorted under the old set up. Of course, I could just be hallucinating again. Can someone advise me? Thanks very much.

Hi:

New here, technologically challenged user. Going on the theory that the only stupid question is one that isn't asked, I'm coming here with a query. Here goes:

I have a Sony Bravia HDTV and Time Warner HD cable. Also a Samsung DVD/VHS combo unit. The Time Warner cable guy installed these as follows: (1) HDMI cable from DVD/VHS combo directly to the TV; (2) component cables from cable box to DVD/VHS combo unit and then from combo unit to the TV. The way it was working during that time was that only DVDs would play, tapes would not play. But all television channels - HD or SD - appeared full screen. And I swear there was no distortion of the image on the SD channels.

Then the other day one of my kids wanted to watch an old tape we had laying around. So I reconnected as follows: (1) HDMI cable from DVD/VHS combo; (2) HDMI cable directly from cable box to television; (3) composite cables from DVD/VHS combo unit to the TV. Now the combo unit will play tapes as well as DVDs. But when we watch television, the SD channels are now showing with black bars on the sides.

I can use the Stretch function so that the SD channels fill the screen, but the pictures are distorted. Same with the Zoom function.

Is anyone familiar with this and know how to get the setting back the way it was? I've had a Time Warner guy out to look things over, but he simply set the Stretch function and said that was the only way to get full-screen SD channels.

Perhaps I'm simply not remembering right, but I don't remember the full-screen SD channels looking distorted under the old set up. Of course, I could just be hallucinating again. Can someone advise me? Thanks very much.

4:3 SD channels will never be "full screen" on your 16:9 HDTV unless stretched horizontally. It's impossible to turn the almost square 4:3 picture into a 16:9 rectangle without stretching. It just can't be done.

SD content *should* be displayed with "black bars" (actually called pillar-box) on the sides. This is the correct way to display. Stretching should NEVER be done.

Yes...4:3 will look distorted and is normal. But there are different levels of distorted, you just need to find the acceptable one to you. Hell, just keep it in 4:3. ;)

Some channels broadcast widescreen content letterboxed (black bars on top and bottom) on their SD channels, and you can set some widescreen TV's to "zoom" so that the letterboxed image fills the 16x9 screen without distortion... though the picture will be considerably more fuzzy than a digital broadcast.

tntnb:

Just thought I'd add a bit more to hopefully explain what happened a bit better (?). So first of all, welcome (forgot that last time!).

Second, the component cables are an analog connection and so the display processing would have been handled by the cable box. With the HDMI cable (digital connection to TV), it's the TV doing it. That might explain a difference in how they appear to you, but in either case, I would maintain that the proper and preferred way to display 4:3 SD is in 4:3 as it was designed, pillarboxed (black bars on both sides) unless you want people to look fat, squares turn into rectangles, and circles turn into ovals!

Thank you, folks, for the explanations (and the welcome also!). That really helped me understand things much better.

I suspect that the original hookup was doing "anamorphic" stretch where it gradually stretches the picture more and more, the farther from the center of the screen you get. That typically hides the stretch much better. Then when things got switched, and you manually did the stretch, it was just standard "equal" stretch, where the entire picture was stretched equally, which looks noticeably more stretched.

But, as above, the SD content was surely being stretched.

I suspect that the original hookup was doing "anamorphic" stretch where it gradually stretches the picture more and more, the farther from the center of the screen you get. That typically hides the stretch much better. Then when things got switched, and you manually did the stretch, it was just standard "equal" stretch, where the entire picture was stretched equally, which looks noticeably more stretched.

But, as above, the SD content was surely being stretched.

Anamorphic actually refers to the process of squishing widescreen content horizontally to fit in a 4:3 format (people are tall and skinny), and then the display device stretches it horizontally back to widescreen, where it displays properly.

But, your point is taken. That sort of non-linear stretching you are describing makes things in the middle of the picture appear closer to correct proportions, but then things on the side are way out of proportion. When the camera pans in say basketball or football games, it looks like a wave. Yuck!

wow, eddie fingers coming back to wlw to his old time slot starting monday. http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2012/01/29/eddie-fingers-back-on-wlw-am/

Why did 'Doc' get canned??? Kinda cold to do it to him while he was on his honeymoon...

From John Kiesewetter: Bill Cunningham's TV show going national (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2012/02/10/bill-cunninghams-tv-show-going-national/).

The bad news is that it's moving from local syndication to the CW. And we don't have a dedicated CW station here in Cincinnati. Willie would be stuck in 4x3, 480i on 12.2. I know there's a slim chance, but wouldn't it be nice if one of Elliott Block's stations would become a low-power, yet full HD CW affiliate? Likely it would be the station on virtual channel 38 that's implemented on physical channel 20.

(What?! You say there's nothing there? The FCC records (http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WOTH) don't lie! ;) )

From John Kiesewetter: Bill Cunningham's TV show going national (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2012/02/10/bill-cunninghams-tv-show-going-national/).

The bad news is that it's moving from local syndication to the CW. And we don't have a dedicated CW station here in Cincinnati. Willie would be stuck in 4x3, 480i on 12.2. I know there's a slim chance, but wouldn't it be nice if one of Elliott Block's stations would become a low-power, yet full HD CW affiliate? Likely it would be the station on virtual channel 38 that's implemented on physical channel 20.

(What?! You say there's nothing there? The FCC records (http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WOTH) don't lie! ;) )

Fortunately, should I ever decide to watch, I get The CW out of Dayton. :cool:

Does anyone really need to see Willie in HD. There is a reason he's been on radio for 30 years you know :p.

Fortunately, should I ever decide to watch, I get The CW out of Dayton. :cool:

Some of us can't get it due to significant terrain issues. My TV Fool plot says WBDT has a -12.0 dB noise margin where I'm located. Nothing can cure bad VHF/UHF reception behind a large hill!

I don't expect ch.38 to ever go full power. Last week i talked to elliot (ch.38 owner) they were moving out of their current offices. He expects more of the tv spectrum is going to be taken away for the wireless companies. BTW the reason This-Tv program guide isn't working is this tv engineers are not sending him the proper program guide format (thats why 25-2 says no information). After hearing this info I just deleted 25-2 (this tv) since i never know what on their channel. I also learned Daystar is in bankruptcy so don't expect (low power ch.36) to be on the air in cincinnati anytime soon.

The one hope will be if WKRC would provide a HD feed of 12.2 directly to the cable companies in the area. With Insight becomming Time Warner cable in a few months, it might be easier to do.

The one hope will be if WKRC would provide a HD feed of 12.2 directly to the cable companies in the area. With Insight becomming Time Warner cable in a few months, it might be easier to do.

That would be nice but 12-2 looks awful now (very pixilated with motion) I don't expect them to do anything. All of ch.25 subchannels look better than ch.12 so the technology is there except ch.12 doesn't seem to care.

All of ch.25 subchannels look better than ch.12Hahahahahahha...I disagree strongly on this comment. Now this being my opinion using OTA for my source.;)

I also learned Daystar is in bankruptcy so don't expect (low power ch.36) to be on the air in cincinnati anytime soon.

What's the source for this?

There is a solar equipment company also named Daystar that filed bankruptcy. Since I'm in Dallas (where Daystar is headquartered), I've seen nothing about the television network in this regard.

the source that daystar is in bankruptcy is: (elliot block ch.25 owner wbqc wkrp.tv ) talked to him about 2 weeks ago.

WKRC was always a favorite of mine growing up. This is since the PM Magazine days, probably back to Fernwood 2Night. Here's a few recent observations about how they run that station:

- sound for Ch 12.1 and 12.2 is higher than all the other channels. I'm guessing 3-5db. I always have to turn the TV down.
- The last few 11PM newscasts the audio arrived before the video! Creepy.
- Is 12.2 being streamed via a 56kbps modem? Really?!? :)

And finally, more of a programming observation than on the tech side:

- On winter weather advisory days, they are most guilty of using up valuable screen space with scrolling text and they distort/stretch the picture way too much. Pet peeve but I'm guessing there's not a lot of stretch fans here. :)

Is there any dvr similar to tivo that will record over the air broadcasts without a fee? I am still using my old analog tv. Can an old direct tv dvr box record ota if i am currently currently not a subscriber to direct tv? Is there a way to rig up a computer to record ota?

Is there any dvr similar to tivo that will record over the air broadcasts without a fee?

Check this out: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657
Walmart sells them. Works very well and is quite versatile.

Is there any dvr similar to tivo that will record over the air broadcasts without a fee? I am still using my old analog tv. Can an old direct tv dvr box record ota if i am currently currently not a subscriber to direct tv? Is there a way to rig up a computer to record ota?

http://www.channelmasterstore.com/HD_DVR_with_no_subscription_p/cm7400.htm

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1360146

I don't have one though, already have a pc using Beyond TV4.

Is there any dvr similar to tivo that will record over the air broadcasts without a fee? I am still using my old analog tv. Can an old direct tv dvr box record ota if i am currently currently not a subscriber to direct tv? Is there a way to rig up a computer to record ota?

I use the older version of this: http://www.channelmasterstore.com/HD_DVR_with_no_subscription_p/cm7400.htm

Check this out: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657
Walmart sells them. Works very well and is quite versatile.

What wal mart sells them (I have looked at mason and evendale( no luck)

They don't stock them, you have to order online but I believe they'll still ship it to your house for 99 cents.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-MDR515H-F7-500GB-HDD-and-DVD-R-with-Digital-Tuner/15080509

FWIW, from a DXer's point of view regarding the ATSC tuner in the Magnavox MDR515H/F7 500GB HDD and DVD-R, here's a personal review I posted in Sept. 2011.

http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?6630-Magnavox-MDR515H-F7-500GB-HDD-and-DVD-R-with-Digital-Tuner

I recently saw this thing: https://www.simple.tv/
Interesting.

In general, the sticking point with most OTA DVR solutions is that, in order to be "free", they have to get their program guide (EPG) info from OTA signals. That typically means you get 2-3 days of info, tops. That's not very effective in terms of being able to set a show to record easily - especially if you are, for example, going on a few days' vacation. Some of the various devices out there offer free EPG if you are okay with three days, but offer a pay-per-month deal (typically cheap, maybe $5) to get full two weeks EPG data from them via phone or internet connection.

Personally, I have SageTV, which, from all I have read in the last 4 years, was the best HTPC software in terms of reliability, expandability, and the ability to watch anything and everything. However, you notice I said "was" - because SageTV was bought by Google last summer and is now (at least for the time being) dead. It still works for those of us who have it, but you can't buy it anymore if you don't.

However, there is a little hope that Google will do something with SageTV. See a post from the owner/CEO of SageTV, who is now a Google employee: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=524462&postcount=20

They don't stock them, you have to order online but I believe they'll still ship it to your house for 99 cents.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-MDR515H-F7-500GB-HDD-and-DVD-R-with-Digital-Tuner/15080509

thanks for the link. Wal mart is out of stock and almost everyone else. Any other suggestions? I would like a dual high def tuner like tivo to record hi def. (this one doesn't record hi def)

There was discussion about a month ago in the Mag thread about the mfr possibly shutting down production. I don't know what the end result was, but several ppl were considering buying a spare unit or two, just in case.

according to the bh photo website the magnavox mdr515h/57 unit has been discontinued and the previous version is on backorder. (wal mart online and amazon have none). I hate to pay the 12.95 fee to tivo for my dual tuner unit (i bought on craigslist for $50) but until more options become available i think i'm stuck.

Is there any way to get tivo service for a lower cost or to manipulate tivo's software to avoid paying the monthly subscription fee.

Is there any way to get tivo service for a lower cost or to manipulate tivo's software to avoid paying the monthly subscription fee.Um... no....

You might also want to look into the new stuff from Ceton, the "Q" and the "Echo", which were debuted at CES last month. Search "Ceton Q" and you'll find lots about it out there.

https://thereifixedit.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/white-trash-repairs-what-i-grounded-it-to-earth.jpg

Yes it's silly, but I'm sure we've seen our fair share of ineffective grounds...

Got tired of the limited choices for over the air tv recording. I just bought a lifetime subscription for my tivo until more choices become available. TIVO Lifetime subscriptions are fairly reasonably priced if you call tivo's cancellation number- otherwise they want $399-$499 which i wouldnt pay.

Hey jimp, you gonna post your annual listings of what NCAA games are on what channels? :D

Hey jimp, you gonna post your annual listings of what NCAA games are on what channels? :D

All games are on tv in their entirety. Here is the schedule: http://mattsarzsports.com/basketball201112/NCAA

All games are on tv in their entirety. Here is the schedule: http://mattsarzsports.com/basketball201112/NCAA
I'm aware of that, but this forum is predominantly for people using Cincinnati OTA, who would only get games on WKRC. And jimp always used to post listings of what games were on.

I guess not....

called ch.12. the xavier game is going to be carried by ch.12 tonight after the 7:30 game (sometime after 9pm)

I'm aware of that, but this forum is predominantly for people using Cincinnati OTA, who would only get games on WKRC. And jimp always used to post listings of what games were on.

I guess not....

If you had clicked on the link, you would have seen the games carried on CBS. The site has been updated, so it includes games through Sunday. It should go without saying, but the CBS games will be carried by WKRC. WKRC can't choose to air any other games.

skylab, I think you are missing the point. I am aware of what games are on and when. I wouldn't even have to call channel 12 (no offense, balloonfanatic, but really?), because it's all over the internet (who plays when and on what channel).

My original post was, as I said above, because jimp used to go out of his way to diligently post all that info back in the days when it was harder to know and when everything was only on CBS. Part of my point was that these days, we don't really need it, but he did such a great job and took such pride in diligently providing us with the info (to the point where people relied on it) that I was half-jokingly wondering if he was still going to do it, just for old times' sake. Hence the big smiley :D in the post.

Sorry you guys got caught in an inside joke and didn't know the history.

And, as to that original question, his absence since implies clearly not. :)

I don't follow sports, but I've noticed there are a few here who do ;)

So I gotta ask a question.... I know that we have several local teams in the "sweet sixteen", and I'm wondering does this give us national bragging rights, or is this only a regional distinction?

I don't follow sports, but I've noticed there are a few here who do ;)

So I gotta ask a question.... I know that we have several local teams in the "sweet sixteen", and I'm wondering does this give us national bragging rights, or is this only a regional distinction?
On another (sports-related) forum I follow, a guy who knew I was from Cinci posted something about how awesome it had to be here, having 7 of the 16 teams in the "region" in the Sweet 16. Of course, the guy who posted lived here when he was very young and still has family ties here, so he's a little biased.

As I'm OTA and don't watch the endless array of talk shows on ESPN and the like, I have no idea whether any national media has picked up on the fact that there are 7 teams in the "covered by Cincinnati local news" area that are still alive. I did hear that no state has ever had four teams in the sweet 16 before (as Ohio does) - even in years that the state of North Carolina had 4 teams in the tourney (UNC, NC St, Duke, Wake Forest), they never all reached the Sweet 16. So THAT little stat might reach national media. But I doubt they care enough to really expound on it. I suspect it's more a "local pride" thing that the local media are talking about.

Now, if XU and UC were to reach the national championship (highly doubtful) and have a rematch of the game where the huge brawl broke out back in December, WOW, would you have a national media story. :eek:

Now, if XU and UC were to reach the national championship (highly doubtful) and have a rematch of the game where the huge brawl broke out back in December, WOW, would you have a national media story. :eek:I really am not into college ball, so I hadn't thought about this, but hell yes; a rematch would get me to watch. Definitely going to be watching Thursday nites game. :cool:

I don't follow sports, but I've noticed there are a few here who do ;)

So I gotta ask a question.... I know that we have several local teams in the "sweet sixteen", and I'm wondering does this give us national bragging rights, or is this only a regional distinction?

Depends on what you mean..."us" defining the state or Cinti? Regardless, if your school is in it then I would say it is bragging rights. Just the fact there are 4 teams from one state, I'm not sure what is to be gained by it? The championship game between X & UC would be bragging rights I s'pose as that fight did garner national attention.

My wife and I are OSU and UC alums, and our sons are also split as OSU and UC grads.
So yeah, we all are proud that our teams have made it this far, though we have never even
watched a game. I just wanted to be sure that there is indeed something special about
being in the sweet sixteen before mentioning it to friends on the east and west coast.

BTW it's odd that the brawl was on national news but that four Ohio teams are in the playoff is not.

It was mentioned this morning as a blip on one of the national news channelss, either NBC or CBS since those are the 2 I have been watching.

BTW it's odd that the brawl was on national news but that four Ohio teams are in the playoff is not.
Not really. The fact that the teams are from the same state doesn't really have any effect on their games. Of the four, the only expected to have a chance at reaching the Final Four is the winner of UC/OSU. The two other teams are at different sites this weekend and are heavily expected to not make it to the Final Four. Now if somehow three of the four teams in the Final Four ended up being from Ohio....

As for the fight, ANY fight of that magnitude and violence, between any teams of their significance, would have been big national news. It involved a team that was (at the time) top 10 in the nation (XU), and a team in the nation's "premiere power conference" (UC in the Big East). It resulted in major suspensions that therefore affected upcoming conference games, so that was a big deal. The fact that it was a cross-town rivalry, which gets a LITTLE national play, just added to the intrigue of the fight in the national coverage. I've followed college hoops for 30+ years (and I played myself) and it was one of, if not THE, biggest and ugliest fights I have ever seen.

And, yes, making the Sweet 16 is always a big deal. Every time you advance to "the next week", it's huge.

Not really. The fact that the teams are from the same state doesn't really have any effect on their games.

Though I'm sure the final four must be a more elite distinction, I think that having a third of the sixteen (including UK & IU) being within 100 miles of us is something special. We are after all talking about (I'm guessing) that is out of hundreds of college teams nationally.

Though I'm sure the final four must be a more elite distinction, I think that having a third of the sixteen (including UK & IU) being within 100 miles of us is something special. We are after all talking about (I'm guessing) that is out of hundreds of college teams nationally.
Don't get me wrong, it is unusual and is great for our area, and it makes it more fun for all the fans in overlapping fanbase footprints. But the rest of the nation really doesn't really care that much. We see that UC, XU, Ohio State, Ohio U., Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisville - 7 out of 16 schools left - are in the area that the local Cincinnati news "covers" (at least reports their scores when they play), and we almost all know people who root for each school - but it doesn't really matter to people elsewhere who don't root for any of those schools. If you pointed out the fact to someone in California, they might say "oh, I hadn't noticed that, that's cool." That's about the extent. But it wouldn't be worth, say, ESPN doing a whole piece on it. For one thing, there's not necessarily ties amongst the teams to the area - these teams have players and coaches from all over the country. If these teams were comprised entirely of players from right around their schools, or only in this region, then it would be impressive - there would be stories about how this area of the country clearly produces great basketball players. But as it is, you have coaches from elsewhere, and players from elsewhere, and five different conferences being represented amongst the seven teams. So other than news coverage by media outlets in this region, and overlapping of fanbases, they really have nothing tying them together.

As I briefly mentioned above, North Carolina regularly has three teams in the tourney that are within a few miles of each other - Duke, North Carolina, and NC State. In fact if Duke had not been upset by Lehigh, they might have beaten XU in the next round and then both Ohio and North Carolina would have had three teams in the Sweet 16 from their state, and NC's would have been much closer geographically to each other than Ohio's, and all been in the same conference (ACC). But even that wouldn't have gotten too much media attention - it's just geography.

Hope that makes sense. Not trying to be argumentative, just giving a viewpoint.

P.S. Yes, there are well over 300 Division schools that play basketball. So it is cool to have 7 of the remaining 16 from this area.

Heh, so I saw a headline link to this story and thought "wow, maybe the national press DOES care about Ohio having four teams in the 16!"...

...and then when I clicked on the link, it was from Fox Sports Ohio.

So, yeah... Ohio cares that Ohio has four schools in. :D

http://www.foxsportsohio.com/03/19/12/Hoop-state-The-bracket-says-yes/msn_landing.html?blockID=691362&feedID=3724

... five different conferences being represented amongst the seven teams. So other than news coverage by media outlets in this region, and overlapping of fanbases, they really have nothing tying them together.

The whole "conference" thing is what I wasn't sure of. I didn't want to mention it (or okay, lets call it, "rubbing it in") to my friends in the VA/NC region if it turned out that our six schools were only from a small pool of OH/IN/KY teams in some sort of small midwest conference, rather than nationally.

Whether or not the nation takes note isn't really that important to me. I just didn't want to look like a total noob (well maybe I am ;)) Anyway, thanks for your answers.

I didn't want to mention it (or okay, lets call it, "rubbing it in") to my friends in the VA/NC region if it turned out that our six schools were only from a small pool of OH/IN/KY teams in some sort of small midwest conference, rather than nationally.Kentucky is the northernmost school in a conference that covers the southeast, stretching from Arkansas to South Carolina and all the way down to Gainesville, FL. Cincinnati and Louisville are in a conference that reaches from New York and Connecticut over to Wisconsin (Marquette), but with most schools located in the northeast. Xavier's conference spreads across the mid-Atlantic, and with the exception of St. Louis University and Dayton, all the other teams are well east of here. Ohio State and Indiana are in the Big Ten, solidly covering big state schools from Minnesota, across the upper midwest over to Pennsylvania. Ohio University is the only school that somewhat fits your description, the MAC, with small schools in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, northern Illinois, and, randomly, Buffalo.

Virtually all the schools in your friends "neighborhood" are in the same conference, the ACC. UNC, NC St., Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, etc. They are usually a dominant basketball conference but they had a "relatively" down year.

My original post was, as I said above, because jimp used to go out of his way to diligently post all that info back in the days when it was harder to know and when everything was only on CBS. Part of my point was that these days, we don't really need it, but he did such a great job and took such pride in diligently providing us with the info (to the point where people relied on it) that I was half-jokingly wondering if he was still going to do it, just for old times' sake. Hence the big smiley :D in the post.

Sorry you guys got caught in an inside joke and didn't know the history.

And, as to that original question, his absence since implies clearly not. :)

I believe it was also jimp that gave us the lowdown on NFL football games. Back then only certain games were HD and it was good to know what games were available from Dayton also.

Anybody know if WCET was down for a while Saturday night? My wife had set Masterpiece to record and more than half of it was no signal. Later that night (11-ish?) I tried tuning into 48.1, .2, and .3 and none had a signal. It was working fine Sunday morning so I'm assuming it was on their end....

Anybody know if WCET was down for a while Saturday night? My wife had set Masterpiece to record and more than half of it was no signal. Later that night (11-ish?) I tried tuning into 48.1, .2, and .3 and none had a signal. It was working fine Sunday morning so I'm assuming it was on their end....

CET was have problems between 10 PM Saturday to 2:30 an Sunday.

From John Kiesewetter's blog: 'New Xtreme Sounds' on WXIX-TV's Bounce (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2012/04/06/new-xtreme-sounds-on-wxix-tvs-bounce/).

It's good to see local programming on a new station where it will get more exposure!

Few things about WKRC ...

#1). Noticed lately during some commercials (not sure what all is affected, as haven't had time to watch much TV, but the local news and what I've checked from CBS HD have been fine) it looks like Field Order is reversed ... As if say, some of these commercials(or whatever) are BFF but encoded/flagged as TFF (or vice versa) ... Update: Watching from 6pm~8pm tonight, it seems this issue only involves a limited number of commercials ...

#2). WKRC TVGOS streams are broken -- They are referenced in program 1 PMT (PID address 0x0030) at PID addresses 0x00110 and 0x0111 as usual, but the streams aren't actually present in the transport stream ...

#3). PAT (0x0000) Currently has bandwidth of about 1.8Mb/s (what you might expect for null packet stream or Mobile DTV/MH stream, not a PAT), there is no null packet stream in their TS currently .... Video streams of program 1("12.1") and 2("12.2") are static bandwidth(14.07Mb/s for 12.1, 2.66Mb/s for 12.2), which seems unusual given they previously used Stat Mux ... Update: Also, PAT is chock full of continuity errors ....

#2 and #3 has been going on at least several days, probably longer, not sure how long #1 has been happening ....

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

4/25 Update (16:35EDT) - #2+#3 above Have been Fixed as of currently, WKRC TS is back to normal (with TVGOS streams+Null packet stream) ...

Hey guys it has been a while since I last researched this. But can you guys tell me the best reasonably priced OTA hdtv antenna? Thanks.

EDIT- something like U4000 is only for like attic right? I am looking to pick up channels 60 to 100 miles away. http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraft-u4000-hdtv-uhf-4-bay-antenna-bowtie-u4000-outdoor-bow-tie-17-electronic-elements-for-local-offair-digital-tv-television-signal-reception-aerial-light-green-zone-part-u4000-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-6548.html

What about the Winegard 7082P? Would that be suggested over the U4000? http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=HD-7082P&d=Winegard-HD-7082P-High-Definition-VHF%2FUHF%2FFM-TV-Antenna-(HD7082P)&sku=615798317478&more=yes

I'm on in the wrong forum, or website even with these questions?

Hey guys it has been a while since I last researched this. But can you guys tell me the best reasonably priced OTA hdtv antenna? Thanks.

EDIT- something like U4000 is only for like attic right? I am looking to pick up channels 60 to 100 miles away. http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraft-u4000-hdtv-uhf-4-bay-antenna-bowtie-u4000-outdoor-bow-tie-17-electronic-elements-for-local-offair-digital-tv-television-signal-reception-aerial-light-green-zone-part-u4000-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-6548.html

What about the Winegard 7082P? Would that be suggested over the U4000? http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=HD-7082P&d=Winegard-HD-7082P-High-Definition-VHF%2FUHF%2FFM-TV-Antenna-(HD7082P)&sku=615798317478&more=yes

I'm on in the wrong forum, or website even with these questions?

mphfrom77,

No, this is definitely the place to ask for help with this, and there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people here.

First off, it's good to go to tvfool.com and get a report of what you should be able to pick up from your home, and how strong those stations are. You can post that report here and get a more detailed recommendation.

Also, what markets are you looking to pick up fro your location? Cincinnati and Louisville have channels in the high-VHF range (WKRC on RF12 and WHAS on RF11), Lexington and Dayton are all-UHF.

The U4000 you posted is a great UHF antenna, and is designed for an outdoor mount. It does fairly well in an attic, but not well enough to get you the 60-100 mile coverage you're looking for. Also, the bow-tie antennas sometimes tend to have multipath issues in the attic, depending on the construction of your house.

Antennacraft and Winegard both make a combined high-VHF and UHF yagi antenna, similar to the older-style combination antennas but not as wide (since they don't cover 2-6 or FM) and thus, less wind load.
Antennacraft's version, which is all I typically install, is the HBU series. The HBU44 or HBU55 would be your best bet in this series.
http://www.summitsource.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=antennacraft+HBU&x=0&y=0
Winegard's version is the HD-769x series. The 7697 or 7698 would work for you in this case.
http://www.summitsource.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=winegard+769&x=0&y=0

I have found in my installs that these typically work better than separate UHF and VHF antennas, if you plan on combining the two into the same coax. Then again, every situation is different, and your mileage may vary.

If all you need is UHF, my recent favorite has been the Antennacraft G1483. It's not the most directional, but definitely yielded the most gain of any UHF antenna I've installed.
The Antennacraft MXU59 and Winegard HD-9095P are great UHF yagi's also.
http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraft-8-bay-uhf-antenna-hdtv-guaranteed-to-out-perform-all-other-outdoor-18-elements-tv-aerial-for-local-offair-digital-fringe-reception-red-zone-part-super-g1483-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-6356.html
http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraft-mxu59-uhf-antenna-extreme-deep-fringe-maxus-59-electronic-elements-directional-tv-outdoor-television-signal-rooftop-local-offair-digital-hdtv-reception-aerial-blue-zone-part-mxu59-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-6337.html
http://www.summitsource.com/winegard-hd9095p-uhf-yagi-antenna-hdtv-platinum-hd9095p-39-element-offair-digital-television-aerial-blue-zone-part-hd9095p-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-4566.html

If you decide to do the separate UHF/VHF route, the Antennacraft Y10-7-13 is your best bet for high-VHF. You'll also need a good band separator (don't use a splitter, you'll lose 4dB gain), such as the CM 0549.


http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraft-y10713-high-band-broadband-vhf-antenna-yagi-series-digital-hdtv-highband-vhf-tv-aerial-10-electronic-elements-directional-local-channels-7-13-offair-hd-signal-reception-blue-zone-part-y10713-with-50-ft-coax-cable-p-9259.html

Lastly, make sure you get a good low-noise preamp. Winegard and Channel Master make great amps.

I hope this helps, and feel free to post any further questions here!

-Rob

Thank you very much Robert. I will review those models along with tvfool over the next couple days and let you know what I come up with.

Cincinnati and Louisville have channels in the high-VHF range (WKRC on RF12 and WHAS on RF11)...

Has anyone around Cincinnati been able to get WHAS, even through tropospheric ducting? If so, I don't think anyone has mentioned it in this thread. Back when analog was on the air, WAVE wasn't too difficult to receive if your antenna could pick up low-VHF.

Has anyone around Cincinnati been able to get WHAS, even through tropospheric ducting?

Yes, on 55 pre-transition and 11 post-transition(via tropo from here).

Yes, on 55 pre-transition and 11 post-transition(via tropo from here).

Let me rephrase that: have any of us mere mortals gotten it? ;)

My TV Fool report puts it at around -20 dBm. I guess I have to wait for a really good opening.

is wkrc 12-2 broadcasting in hd. my tivo says 12-2 programs are broadcast in hd while my tv with a converter box says its not broadcasting in hd. which one is correct?


which outdoor antenna will improve my (daytime) reception of indianapolis tv. most nights in sharonville the antennacraft u4000 will pick up the uhf stations (channel 6, wipb in marion indiana and others) but the vhf stations 8 and 13 only come in during trippo nights. My house is on a hill with a clear view to the west/northwest. Am i wasting my time and money?

WKRC's .2 sub-channel is 480i (SD) regardless of what the DVR says.

The only way to CW in HD is to point your antenna towards Dayton and then tune to 26.1. I'm too far south of Dayton to get WBDT but you might get a good signal in Cincinnati especially in the northern burbs their would be no problems getting WBDT.

Has anybody noticed fairly significant pixellation on ESPNHD from Time Warner on the east side of Cincinnati (the Magic vs Pacers game tonight looks terrible)? I complained to TWC several weeks ago and ultimately, after several service calls, their engineers effectively said it was the result of processing of local commercials and that only a few customer were complaining (i.e., too bad until more people complain). I am surprised there are not more people complaining.

I'm not sure why local commercials would effect picture quality on ESPN programming. It sounds like a BS answere to me. I hope when Insight Communications becomes TWC they don't mess things up too much. You should try getting a response on their CS twitter handle. @twcablehelp

Here is the email response they sent me (sounds like local ad insertions add more processing):

To clarify my statement below, we locally encode 24 HD channels on our network to gain efficiencies on bandwidth allowing us to combine three HD services on to one linear 256 QAM. Sports channels with constant motion and action are the most difficult to process and our local ad insertions equipment also adds additional processing. Unfortunately this additional processing contributes to the digital artifacts seen by a small portion of our subscribers. Other factors may weigh in with the subscriber's TV accentuating the issue. ESPNU and ESPN News are in our Switched Digital Video (SDV) pool and are not processed to the extent as ESPN, ESPN2 and FSN HD.

Our local processing and encoding equipment is of high quality and we make every effort to provide our subscribers with the best product we can. As our network evolves in the future improvements and efficiencies will be gained with local processing equipment reducing artifacts and improving quality.

Feedback from our subscribers is very important and we will continue to monitor and evaluate our options. There are no immediate plans for changes or adjustment.

Is this Cable TV Operators admitting that Broadcast TV is much higher quality than what they put out?

Not at all... And "much higher quality" really isn't accurate IMO. While noticeably better (to folks like me and you) for most they are indiscernable from one another.

After watching strictly OTA for the past few years, and knowing precisely what looks good and what doesn't (73" screen), I have been watching the local networks HD offerings off TW and I can assure you, while there is still a difference in OTA favor, Cable has greatly improved.

Now, I will be returning to OTA as soon as I get a replacement UVSJ (under $2) for a bad one. But in the interim, TW is certainly not a bad fall back. :cool:

Hello all,
I am in the Cleves area about 15-20 miles west of downtown. I have had an outdoor amplified antenna mounted on North East corner of house). I have Dish Network, but occasionally use the OTA option to DVR-record a 3rd show--I have 2 tuner set up through Dish). I just bought a new LED, and when I hooked up antenna to TV initially, it picked up same stations (5, 9, 12, 19, etc), plus had strong signal to several Dayton stations, too.

Now my problem. I mounted LED to wall, and now when I hook up antenna to either tv directly, or to Dish STB, I only get Channel 12 including subchannels. My guess is that the Channel 12 has strongest signal, and somehow I have lost amplification from the antenna and now can't get the other channels....

I've checked all the connections, but there is no way that I can figure out how to tell if I am even getting power to the antenna for amplification. Any suggestions/thoughts?

Thanks

When you know your OTA equipment can receive UHF frequencies but your new (or moved, or disconnected/reconnected) arrangement shows only the VHF channel and no UHF, it's because the tuner has reverted to a default setting of "cable" as a source rather than "off-air". Make sure your input is set to "antenna" or "off-air" and re-scan for channels it can pick up.

When you know your OTA equipment can receive UHF frequencies but your new (or moved, or disconnected/reconnected) arrangement shows only the VHF channel and no UHF, it's because the tuner has reverted to a default setting of "cable" as a source rather than "off-air". Make sure your input is set to "antenna" or "off-air" and re-scan for channels it can pick up.

Thanks, Mark for the suggestion. Checked, and everything seemed to be right. The Dish STB has options for OTA, Cable, IRC and HRC. Not sure what those last two settings are, but I tried them anyway. Nothing.

I'm thinking I've lost amplification/power for the antenna. It was a cheaper $50 Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna, but I get the same signal meter on the VHF (Channel 9) with/without the amplifier, and I get no signal at all for the other (UHF) channels with/without the amplifier hooked up. So I'm guessing the antenna can't/doesn't get the UHF signals without power/amplification...

Can't decide if I should try to just buy a new amplifier and hook up to the existing antenna, or just buy a whole new amplified antenna, and see if that works...

I suggest you just replace the known defective amp and be done with it, rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel...so to speak.;)

Make sure your amplifier is completely separate from the antenna. I had a RS antenna that had the amplifier housed in a fancy V shaped plastic casing that was integrated into the antenna. It used a remote power injector that could be confused as the whole amplifier.

The amp went out on mine and it would only pick up very strong signals - much worse than a simple set of rabbit ears w/ UHF loop. Didn't matter if the power injector was connected or not. If that's what you have, trying to replace the power injector with a new amplifier won't work.

Splicer and Gerhard
Thanks for the tips. Not 100% positive the amp is in fact the culprit, but I'm speculating. The amp was packaged with the Radio Shack antenna, but is a completely separate piece. I have about 25' run of coax running from antenna to amplifier, then about 6 inches of coax running into set top box. There is no light or anything to tell me the amplifier is actually doing anything...

I'll play with it this weekend and report back. Thanks again for trying to help!

If this is one of those 'in-line' injector type amps, in all seriousness, lose it and get a real amp:
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Booster-484095-001-00-Bi-Directional-Amplifier/dp/B000066E6Y

I would suggest checking your antenna aim and the balun/coax connections at the antenna. The recent storms might have misaligned the antenna or damaged a connection.

If this is one of those 'in-line' injector type amps, in all seriousness, lose it and get a real amp:
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Booster-484095-001-00-Bi-Directional-Amplifier/dp/B000066E6Y

splicer, would this amp. work if i combined the signals from 2 outside antennas- dayton ant. pointing north and cincy ant. pointing south or do i need 2 separate amplifiers to minimize the signal noise. I am currently using older radio shack adjustable inline uhf/vhf amplifiers with fm traps.

Rat shack amps are hi-noise. This Motorola is low-noise. Tocombine the two antennas, you can do 1 of 2 things:
1. Get a 2way splitter and combine the antennas OR
2. Do what I do (not recommended) and put 1 balun on 1 antenna and run the RG6 to the second antenna balun. A 3rd balun on the 2nd antenna (1 antenna has 1 balun, the other antenna has 2 baluns) gets connected to the RG6 going to the TV. The amp I linked to goes inbetween the TV and the antenna.

I do setups going by the second option, mine included, with outstanding results.

Hello all-

I have just learned that Cincinnati Bell is rolling out Fioptics to my neighborhood. I have been a customer of DirecTv for a number of years and am considering this switch. However, I want to make sure that the Fioptics receivers can support my needs before I make the plunge.

I have a single HD DVR that provides output to two TVs on opposite sides of a wall. The primary TV is hooked up via HDMI and the secondary TV is hooked up via component video. I also have a second RF remote control that allows me to control the DVR from the secondary room. My questions are:

1) Will the Fioptics DVR/receiver output to both HDMI and Component concurrently? Or better yet, have 2 HDMI outputs??

2) Do the Fioptics DVR/receivers use RF or IR remotes? I really need RF to control the DVR from the secondary room.

Thanks in advance!
-Jason

I have no Fioptics experience but both of your concerns can be dealt with using readily available A/V accessories.

An HDMI splitter should feed both TV's off a single HDMI output. An RF remote extender uses IR-RF and RF-IR converters. It will allow signals from an IR remote in the other room to be converted into RF signals which are passed to an RF receiver in the primary room. The commands are converted back to IR signals which are then sent to the DVR .

I have no Fioptics experience but both of your concerns can be dealt with using readily available A/V accessories.

An HDMI splitter should feed both TV's off a single HDMI output. An RF remote extender uses IR-RF and RF-IR converters. It will allow signals from an IR remote in the other room to be converted into RF signals which are passed to an RF receiver in the primary room. The commands are converted back to IR signals which are then sent to the DVR .

Thanks. I knew those options existed and had even looked into the HDMI splitter before. I am trying to keep it simple and avoid extra expense if possible, but may have to do this.

I am a bit concerned that there appears to be such a small amount known about Fioptics technical capabilities and there appears to be no support forum specific to Fioptics. Guess I've been spoiled with dbstalk.com...

I have just learned that Cincinnati Bell is rolling out Fioptics to my neighborhood.

What part of town are you in? I am waiting for Fioptics in my part of Mason but CincyBell does not pre-announce where they are moving in.

// Scott A

Scott- i am in Anderson township.

From John Kiesewetter's blog: Fox may buy Channel 64 (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2012/05/15/fox-may-buy-channel-64/).

With the current uncertainties surrounding the future of broadcast TV, this looks like a no-brainer.

I am a bit concerned that there appears to be such a small amount known about Fioptics technical capabilities and there appears to be no support forum specific to Fioptics. Guess I've been spoiled with dbstalk.com...

Yes, there isnt much good technical info out there about Fioptics. One problem is they use that name, but have 2 or 3 connection types, with diff equip for each. In my area (Maineville), they use copper on the poles (same as POTS?) and ZTE equipment (IPTV). Other areas use Motorola or Cisco equipment.

I don't have this service. I might be interested in the internet connection, but the IPTV service doesn't meet my current needs.

i have fioptics for internet. 20mb speed. After a few kinks its been pretty solid. Now I am getting the "we can save you $$ on tv" calls and flyers for fiopitcs tv. I called and might have them convinced to give me a 30 day trial of it. If thats the case, I will get the speed upped to 30.

i have fioptics for internet. 20mb speed. After a few kinks its been pretty solid. Now I am getting the "we can save you $$ on tv" calls and flyers for fiopitcs tv. I called and might have them convinced to give me a 30 day trial of it. If thats the case, I will get the speed upped to 30.

Yeah, the internet for me is a given. I have ZoomTown now so I think it is a no-brainer to get more speed without the additional cost. What are you getting for latency?

Let us know if you decide to get fioptics tv and what you think.

ping is generally 35-50ms with jitter around 3-5ms

ping is generally 35-50ms with jitter around 3-5ms

Ok, I was hoping for better than that. I am getting that with Zoomtown today.