Wow! I wonder what outside target date that Fenty negitiated down from. Within nine years, we probably won't even be using FiOS anymore.

Charles County just rolled over & accepted a similar timeframe there.

http://www.charlescounty.org/verizon/cc_verizon_franchise.pdf

Be sure and see the "Line Extension Policy" part.

Of course, the Commissioners are so busy congratulating themselves that their tongues are sore and their backs slapped raw.

The finest govenment money can buy....

That's probably still a lot sooner than Baltimore City will get it.:rolleyes:

I'm in west Fairfax county near the intersection of I66 and the Fairfax County Parkway. Since the conversion, I've been having problems with ch 4 reception on my Windows Media Center tuner. Signal strength looks ok but the video jumps/stutters frequently but only on ch4. However ch4 seems to come in fine on my Samsung HDTV which has a built in tuner. The Media Center tuner is an ATI 650 pci tuner.

Since ch 7 & 9 switched to VHF, I added an older Radioshack VHF/UHF antenna to the attic along with the UHF antenna I had been using. Each antenna goes thru an amplifier then gets combined (I just used an old splitter in reverse) into a 100+ ft coax run to the basement. Once in the basement it gets split again to go to 2 tvs and 2 Media Center computers. I get 7 & 9 fine now along with 5, but cannot get 4 to stop jumping.

Is it ok to just use a splitter to combine the two antennas? Is the fact that one antenna is UHF/VHF and the second is just UHF causing me problems? The amplifier on the UHF/VHF is an old unit from Home Depot, but the amplifier on the UFH is a newer Winegard amp. Any help anyone can give me would be appreciated.

That's probably still a lot sooner than Baltimore City will get it.:rolleyes:
what the verizon guy told me today when he installed my fios was that because i live out in the county and my phone lines are overhead i got it quicker

I'm in west Fairfax county near the intersection of I66 and the Fairfax County Parkway. Since the conversion, I've been having problems with ch 4 reception on my Windows Media Center tuner. Signal strength looks ok but the video jumps/stutters frequently but only on ch4. However ch4 seems to come in fine on my Samsung HDTV which has a built in tuner. The Media Center tuner is an ATI 650 pci tuner.

Since ch 7 & 9 switched to VHF, I added an older Radioshack VHF/UHF antenna to the attic along with the UHF antenna I had been using. Each antenna goes thru an amplifier then gets combined (I just used an old splitter in reverse) into a 100+ ft coax run to the basement. Once in the basement it gets split again to go to 2 tvs and 2 Media Center computers. I get 7 & 9 fine now along with 5, but cannot get 4 to stop jumping.

Is it ok to just use a splitter to combine the two antennas? Is the fact that one antenna is UHF/VHF and the second is just UHF causing me problems? The amplifier on the UHF/VHF is an old unit from Home Depot, but the amplifier on the UFH is a newer Winegard amp. Any help anyone can give me would be appreciated.

I have a similar setup except I use a UHF antenna for Baltimore stations and a VHF/UHF antenna (in my attic) for DC stations, they both go through the splitter unamplified and then go through a UHF/VHF amplifier. It seems to work OK the only stations I have problems with are 11 and 13 (Baltimore). I also get channel digital channels 30, 66 and 67 from other locations.

Is it ok to just use a splitter to combine the two antennas? Is the fact that one antenna is UHF/VHF and the second is just UHF causing me problems? The amplifier on the UHF/VHF is an old unit from Home Depot, but the amplifier on the UFH is a newer Winegard amp. Any help anyone can give me would be appreciated.

Yes ... and no ;) I have some experience here, I tried this almost 2 years ago and then spent the next 8 months learning more about Physics.

The reverse splitter trick technically works, but here's what happens. First off, you're losing >50% of the signal from each source (~3.5dB). Not a big deal if you amplify first and then combine. The more important problem is that if each antenna "sees" the same channel, even if it's via a weak reflection, you end up with multiple standing waves on the line at the same frequency. Unless you're the luckiest person ever, these waves will not be in phase and will cancel each other out to some degree and confuse the receiver. In essence, you're creating multipath. By amplifying the signals before combining them, you're creating some really nasty multipath :D

Given the description, that's what I think is happening here. Since the UHF-only antenna has no appeciable gain for 7 and 9, all you're losing is 3.5dB at the combiner on those channels. Since it's already been amplified, not a problem. On the UHF side, however, you're playing with fire. Apparently 4 (UHF 48) has it the worst with your setup, but I would bet that given a change in weather/temperature you'd find more and more channels exhibit the same problem, especially as we head into the winter months.

Let me ask you this ... what is your goal? Was it to just get 7 and 9 back? If that is the case, what you want is a VHF/UHF diplexer, not a splitter. Hook the Radio Shack antenna to the VHF side and the UHF antenna to the UHF side .. BEFORE any amplification. A diplexer is an RF filter that can combine the low VHF frequencies with the high UHF frequencies with almost no loss at all, and it has the benefit that any UHF signals picked up on the VHF antenna are completely filtered out for you, and won't cause you any more grief.

Now, be advised, depending on what model # your Winegard amp is (please tell us and we can look it up), it may not be able to amplify VHF. The one from Home Depot is probably not a very good device, I personally don't recommend using it (GE model perhaps?). If the Winegard amp cannot amplify VHF, you can still try it and see what happens, but it's likely you may need an amplifier capable of handling both VHF and UHF.

My personal advise would be to try a VHF/UHF diplexer first (also called a "combiner" if you're Googling or trying radioshack.com), then run the combined signal into the Winegard amp, and see what happens. If it works well, it's a cheap easy solution. If you don't get good results on the VHF side, you probably want/need a different amplifier.

Don't see it reported here but DirecTV has turned on WNUV HD and WUTB HD. That means all Baltimore HD locals are on DirecTV now.

WJLA has filed an STA to increase power from 30 kW to 52 kW. We have to see what the FCC says.

- Trip

WJLA has filed an STA to increase power from 30 kW to 52 kW. We have to see what the FCC says.

- Trip

I hope they let them give it a try.

WJLA has filed an STA to increase power from 30 kW to 52 kW. We have to see what the FCC says.


...and where will that leave WUSA with its comparatively puny 12.6 kW ERP? If the FCC approves the 52 kW for ACC, channel 9 will be some 6 dB down relative to its VHF competitor and tower mate.

Of course, this presumes that ``power density'' is a significant factor in reception as the filing asserts.

I hope they let them give it a try.

+1 here, a resounding +1. I also hope that if they do, we know in advance when it will happen so we can assist with before/after data for WJLA :) I think they'll let them try it, personally.

Any word on how it's been going with WBAL's STA? Anybody in range of VHF 12 having issues with 11 being more powerful?

Anybody in range of VHF 12 having issues with 11 being more powerful?WBAL has no affect on VHF 12 from my location in Arlington.

I can't see WUSA being able to get any kind of power increase on channel 9. WBPH up there is just too constrictive.

If I was Gannett, I'd look at channel 14 very hard.

- Trip

I can't see WUSA being able to get any kind of power increase on channel 9. WBPH up there is just too constrictive.

True, but if it turns out that the interference rules on VHF have been overestimated, which really seems to be the case from everything I've read to date, a power increase might still be possible. If all these STAs from VHF channels are working out, wouldn't the rules end up getting changed?

I'm still definately in favor of these stations trying it out to see what happens. The longer they wait the less acceptable these kinds of things will be to the public. Before the fall season starts is ideal :)

Didn't all of this happen before in the 1930s or something? I vaguely recall reading about VHF propogation being drastically underestimated originally, too.

It will work out at some point. I'm glad stations like WBAL and WJLA are taking the initiative, since in the end it will help the other stations.

edit: I hate to admit this, but I'm also in favor of the FCC playing favorites when it makes sense to do so. WPBH preventing WUSA from reaching it's designated viewers doesn't make sense. It does to fans of WPBH, I'm sure, but let's consider the greater good here. WUSA is a major network affiliate, I can't believe that WPBH's viewership even scratches the surface of what WUSA's is.

...
I hate to admit this, but I'm also in favor of the FCC playing favorites when it makes sense to do so. WPBH preventing WUSA from reaching it's designated viewers doesn't make sense. It does to fans of WPBH, I'm sure, but let's consider the greater good here. WUSA is a major network affiliate, I can't believe that WPBH's viewership even scratches the surface of what WUSA's is.

Is programming content at all a consideration when the FCC evaluates a facility upgrade or channel change?

The WWAZ/Fond du Lac channel change request cites the Hispanic audience that will be served by relocating the site to the Milwaukee antenna farm. Likewise, the WLS/Chicago channel change notes coverage of the Gay Pride Parade and Mexican Independence Day as examples of its commitment to local programming.

Bringing this matter of content closer to Washington, if programming factors in at all, doesn't WETA have a much stronger case for moving to channel 51 than does WWPX?

Didn't all of this happen before in the 1930s or something? I vaguely recall reading about VHF propogation being drastically underestimated originally, too.

It will work out at some point. I'm glad stations like WBAL and WJLA are taking the initiative, since in the end it will help the other stations.

edit: I hate to admit this, but I'm also in favor of the FCC playing favorites when it makes sense to do so. WPBH preventing WUSA from reaching it's designated viewers doesn't make sense. It does to fans of WPBH, I'm sure, but let's consider the greater good here. WUSA is a major network affiliate, I can't believe that WPBH's viewership even scratches the surface of what WUSA's is.

Experimenting for a broadcast station can be an expensive proposition, depending on the capacity of the transmitter and antenna. Generally you need to make sure the physics and allocation work on paper, before you spend the money.

Regarding your question about when VHF propagation was determined.. Prior to when the original VHF TV station construction permits were being issued in the 1940's, the assumption for both transmission and reception to allocation was calculated. The assumption was, and still is with DTV; that a receive antenna would be horizontal polarity, of at least 10dB gain and installed outside at 30 feet above ground. If this installation is typical, then the theory and practice work perfectly. Fast forward to 2009 and none of the original assumptions took into account 'rabbit ear' antennas, antennas mounted in attics, etc. Modern construction of homes may have foil or mylar coated insulation, noisy house wiring caused by consumer electronic devices (computers and florescent lights), etc. All of these factors cause attenuation or interference to the VHF signal through walls. Of course the antennas indoors have less gain also.

So now is where the tricky part comes into play. It's true that VHF signals (especially DTV which are rated at RMS power, not peak power like NTSC), propagate much further on the horizon than UHF signals. So the issue with interfering with a co-or ajacent channel in another market is a huge factor, but now the field strength to penetrate buildings within a market is compromised. Depending on the individual situation, the FCC may be stuck. Do they authorize a higher power with the risk of interference to viewers to other markets? Or do they keep the power lower and have upset OTA viewers without outdoor antennas within a market?

To me it was silly to allow stations to go back to a VHF channel. Not only has it created confusion with viewers who got used to receiving a UHF signal, but it has put the stations in an unfortunate PR and financial bind in having to possibly upgrade their facilities more than twice.

To me it was silly to allow stations to go back to a VHF channel. Not only has it created confusion with viewers who got used to receiving a UHF signal, but it has put the stations in an unfortunate PR and financial bind in having to possibly upgrade their facilities more than twice.

Right on! It caused headaches and confusion for the broadcasters and for the consumers.

Hey everyone, I had a quick question. Is anyone having issues seeing the substations of WJLA (7.2 and 7.3) and WUSA (9.2)? I'm not sure is the problem is Directv or not. I have my roof antennas connected to the off air antenna in my Directv receiver. I pick up 7.1 and 9.1 flawlessly but the substations don't come in. The funny thing is that the Directv guide has show listings for 7.3. I didn't know if it was something I could fix or if it was something else. Thanks

WUSA has 3.67 Mbps of 0x1eee. That's Mobile DTV.I don't know where you get this -- I checked your official TSReader of WUSA (http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/dc-dca/65593-0_0.htm), and it shows 3.44 Mbps of "0x1fff MPEG-2 NULL Packet". Absolutely no mention of "0x1eee" -- unlike WPXW channel 66 (http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/dc-dca/74091-0_0.htm), with 3.66 Mbps of "0x1eee Unknown usage".

Maybe you have a later TSReader cap that I can't access, but I still don't see how you can confirm Mobile DTV at WUSA, yet. However, I will admit that I've seen 9-1 macroblocking heavily recently, on a standard-def TV.

... The assumption was, and still is with DTV; that a receive antenna would be horizontal polarity, of at least 10dB gain and installed outside at 30 feet above ground. If this installation is typical, then the theory and practice work perfectly. Fast forward to 2009 and none of the original assumptions took into account 'rabbit ear' antennas, antennas mounted in attics, etc. Modern construction of homes may have foil or mylar coated insulation, noisy house wiring caused by consumer electronic devices (computers and florescent lights), etc. All of these factors cause attenuation or interference to the VHF signal through walls. Of course the antennas indoors have less gain also.

There's another factor with DTV that I wonder how much thought was put into, and that's the "acceptable quality" factor. With analog TV, you could get something that's watchable if your tolerance for some ghosting/snow was moderate. The exact same signal level at the antenna with DTV might be worthless. I'm a prime example of this phenominon. I had an antenna that "got" 7 and 9 analog just fine, the picture was quite good actually, but it wasn't perfect. That exact same antenna couldn't provide enough signal for any receiver I have to lock onto 7 digital at all. 7 was/is at the maximum alotted power for VHF, so in theory that shouldn't have happened, right? I suppose that's why I keep harping that the numbers have to be wrong ... lol :D WUSA isn't anywhere near the max, so I don't consider that to fall into the same category, really just WJLA.

edit: it's not like I can do anything about it, I suppose I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing here ... sorry :( ... very troll-like behavior on my part.

Likewise, the WLS/Chicago channel change notes coverage of the Gay Pride Parade and Mexican Independence Day as examples of its commitment to local programming.

Bringing this matter of content closer to Washington, if programming factors in at all, doesn't WETA have a much stronger case for moving to channel 51 than does WWPX?Under that theory, WUSA has the strongest case of them all, considering its for-profit status. However, I'll still give the nod to WETA because of their interference issue with WHAG. Didn't they file for 51 before WWPX?

To me it was silly to allow stations to go back to a VHF channel. Not only has it created confusion with viewers who got used to receiving a UHF signal, but it has put the stations in an unfortunate PR and financial bind in having to possibly upgrade their facilities more than twice.In theory, you have a point; however, there was simply too much money to be had in channels 52-54, let alone the others. It's like how ABC put that second HD subchannel on, purely for the money -- ABC picture quality be damned.

Additionally, how much could revenue possibly be taken away by a weak OTA signal? Something like 80% of viewers have cable or satellite, anyway, and especially the more affluent people that advertisers tend to crave. I read somewhere that half of those that have OTA can still get the VHF OTA signals, leaving maybe 9-10% of the populous. OTA people tend to be older and poorer people, neither of which are advertiser-friendly crowds. I could see a station manager or two deliberately using a lower-power VHF to their advantage, by "forcing" some OTA viewers to sign up for basic cable. Why? So the station can get $.50-1.00/sub/month off the backend, not just for them, but for everyone else subscribed to cable -- all to make up the difference in any lost revenue. Plus, the power bills, transmitter maintenance costs, and any potential new transmitter costs, are kept lower. Then again, I'm cheap.

I had an antenna that "got" 7 and 9 analog just fine, the picture was quite good actually, but it wasn't perfect. That exact same antenna couldn't provide enough signal for any receiver I have to lock onto 7 digital at all. 7 was/is at the maximum alotted power for VHF, so in theory that shouldn't have happened, right? I suppose that's why I keep harping that the numbers have to be wrong ... lol :DAnd they could be wrong. However, a dedicated VHF preamp and VHF-UHF combiner might do the trick for both 7 and 9. That's cheaper than 7 and 9 upping their power.

Hey everyone, I had a quick question. Is anyone having issues seeing the substations of WJLA (7.2 and 7.3) and WUSA (9.2)? I'm not sure is the problem is Directv or not. I have my roof antennas connected to the off air antenna in my Directv receiver. I pick up 7.1 and 9.1 flawlessly but the substations don't come in. The funny thing is that the Directv guide has show listings for 7.3. I didn't know if it was something I could fix or if it was something else. Thanks

What DirecTV receiver are you using? Have you tried direct tuning to 7.3? Have you tried tuning to 7.1 and then using up channel to get to 7.2?

What DirecTV receiver are you using? Have you tried direct tuning to 7.3? Have you tried tuning to 7.1 and then using up channel to get to 7.2?

Eben,

I have an HR20 receiver. I've tried direct tuning to 7.3 directly and using the up channel. The funny thing is that I can get the substations for other channels like 4.2, 4.3, and 50.2. I'm assuming the signal for the substations is coming from the same source as the other stations.

I don't know where you get this -- I checked your official TSReader of WUSA (http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/dc-dca/65593-0_0.htm), and it shows 3.44 Mbps of "0x1fff MPEG-2 NULL Packet". Absolutely no mention of "0x1eee" -- unlike WPXW channel 66 (http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/dc-dca/74091-0_0.htm), with 3.66 Mbps of "0x1eee Unknown usage".

Maybe you have a later TSReader cap that I can't access, but I still don't see how you can confirm Mobile DTV at WUSA, yet. However, I will admit that I've seen 9-1 macroblocking heavily recently, on a standard-def TV.

Whoops. I thought I'd recently uploaded a newer one, but I guess I didn't...

I was actually referring to the one that djp952 posted: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=17051432&postcount=10474

I plan to use that data, I just need to rename them, edit out the EIT data (this is the really time-consuming part) and then upload them to RabbitEars.

Under that theory, WUSA has the strongest case of them all, considering its for-profit status. However, I'll still give the nod to WETA because of their interference issue with WHAG. Didn't they file for 51 before WWPX?

No, WETA and WWPX were filed before the June 20, 2008 deadline, which means the FCC will treat them as mutually exclusive and as though they were filed on the same date.

- Trip

...
Something like 80% of viewers have cable or satellite
...
I read somewhere that half of those that have OTA can still get the VHF OTA signals, leaving maybe 9-10% of the populous
...
a dedicated VHF preamp and VHF-UHF combiner might do the trick for both 7 and 9. That's cheaper than 7 and 9 upping their power.
Really?!?

According to Nielsen, the DC DMA has over 2.3 million households. (Let's ignore Baltimore just to keep it simple.)

So, in other words, you're saying -- using your figures from above -- that the purchase, installation, and continuous operation -- you realize that the power supplies for these preamps will consume a couple of watts or so of electricity, each, right?? -- of some 200,000 or more additional VHF preamps would be cheaper than channel 7 and 9 throwing a bit more juice at their VHF transmitters???

WHUT is now in HD (1080i). Don't know exactly when it changed but I was surfing through the channels and saw an HD logo at the bottom of the screen.

200,000 or more additional VHF preamps would be cheaper than channel 7 and 9 throwing a bit more juice at their VHF transmitters???For some, a preamp won't be needed; an RG-6 cable will suffice. In any case, I was only giving an example for him; I wouldn't recommend a preamp for 200,000 people. Additionally, it wouldn't be a "bit" more power on 7 and 9. The power bill would go up pretty significantly with higher VHF powers. A switch to UHF would be another thing, entirely.

I looked up the location of Elkridge, MD; it's located inbetween DC and Baltimore's towers. Perhaps the antenna is already pointed towards Washington, but if it isn't, then pointing that way might fix the problem, without losing any Baltimore stations.

WHUT is now in HD (1080i). Don't know exactly when it changed but I was surfing through the channels and saw an HD logo at the bottom of the screen.Just checked the OTA tuner. 32-1 is 1080i HD; 32-2 is 480i SD feed. Currently no audio on 32-2.

I looked up the location of Elkridge, MD; it's located inbetween DC and Baltimore's towers. Perhaps the antenna is already pointed towards Washington, but if it isn't, then pointing that way might fix the problem, without losing any Baltimore stations.

LOL, I have to assume you're talking about me there! Yeah, it's pointed towards D.C. I have separate systems for D.C. and Baltimore :D Being as in-between as I am, it's nigh on impossible to get both from a single system, I spent a very long time trying! Now I use a computer and separate tuners hooked to each city's antenna system so there is no worries about aiming or trying to receive channels from nulls or rear gain. (I've been at this a while, and contrary to what I might sound like, I'm pretty thrilled overall with my results ... you can't argue with close to 50 channels, even if 33% of them are PBS - heh)

edit: 32.2 no audio confirmed. Let's give them some time. There was also stretch-o-vision going on earlier on 32.1. Thanks for the heads-up, I've added the channel and am looking forward to even MORE PBS programming from here in rainy downtown Elkridge!! (I jest, but I actually really appreciate having WMPT, WETA and WHUT available to me. I also get WMPB, which is handy for nights were scheduling recordings are tight on the D.C. array). The wife loves WHUT, when she gets back from Germany next year I think the fact that it's finally HD will make her a pretty happy camper. [If anyone wants to know, she's Navy Reserve and was activated last month and will be gone until next October .. hence my increased trolling time at avsforum :-) ]

Any chance of new TSReader data on WHUT?

- Trip

Any chance of new TSReader data on WHUT?

- Trip

Your wish ... my command. Enjoy :)

I was watching FOX 21 tonight on Verizon FiOS and was wondering what was up with the anamorphic look. I thought, since we get FOX-21 HD they were taking that feed for the SD channel (5) and doing something wierd with it.

Then I tuned OTA (Zenith DTT901) and found 21.2 was indeed 16x9 ratio. I checked again with my Sylvania STB and it showed it to be SD 16x9.

This seems like a good compromise as I couldn't believe you could get anywhere near an acceptable picture with both 1080i and 720p on one channel. I'm not sure if 21.2 is 480i or 480p as there's nothing on the net about this. I'm sure it just happened as I usually tune in FOX 21.

I just hope they don't flop back to 4x3 and make me look stupid. :(

So check it out! :) Believe me, it was 16x9 as I typed this. ;)

Your wish ... my command. Enjoy :)

Thanks. :) My observations:

1) It's in 1440x1080i. Someone got a setting wrong somewhere along the way.

2) The Mobile DTV has vanished but there's exactly 3.67 Mbps worth of null packets. I'm assuming they'll bring the MobileDTV back online in that space sooner rather than later.

3) UpdateTV is still there, though I'm having a hard time figuring where the 2 Mbps it occasionally uses will be coming from. I imagine it'll get sucked from the HD, already down at 11.2 Mbps.

- Trip

I was watching FOX 21 tonight on Verizon FiOS and was wondering what was up with the anamorphic look. I thought, since we get FOX-21 HD they were taking that feed for the SD channel (5) and doing something wierd with it.

So check it out! :) Believe me, it was 16x9 as I typed this. ;)The OTA picture of FOX 21 looks very weird on my Samsung LCD. It has a peculiar squeezed look to it. (Looks like 4x2.5???) It was the same way last night. OTOH, the picture on CBS 16 is actually pretty darn good. It actually looks better than WUSA-9 with the Redskins game. The macroblocking is just terrible on WUSA with complex scenes.

I could see a station manager or two deliberately using a lower-power VHF to their advantage, by "forcing" some OTA viewers to sign up for basic cable. Why? So the station can get $.50-1.00/sub/month off the backend, not just for them, but for everyone else subscribed to cable.


Is there a kickback arrangement such that the cableco pays the broadcast station per user? I know the cableco pays such for cable program sources and there is a "must carry" rule. But I assumed it was to the local broadcaster's advantage to directly pipe their content to the head end; I didn't know they got directly paid for same.

WHUT-32.1 is broadcasting in widescreen 1080i tonight. There is also a 32.2 subchannel showing up, but no programming yet.

3) UpdateTV is still there, though I'm having a hard time figuring where the 2 Mbps it occasionally uses will be coming from.



Is it actually doing anything, anywhere?

I've heard about Sony TVs (I think?) getting updated with it.

- Trip

WHUT-32.1 is broadcasting in widescreen 1080i tonight. There is also a 32.2 subchannel showing up, but no programming yet.

WHUT-HD RF33.1 is broadcasting 1080i 16:9 HD to virtual 32.1. WHUT-SD RF33.2 is broadcasting 480i 4:3 SD to virtual 32.2. 32.2 is featuring a white WHUT logo on the lower right corner of the 4:3 black background.

WMDO-LD RF8.1 is broadcasting 480i 16:9 SD to virtual 47.1. WMDO-LD RF8.2 is broadcasting 480i 4:3 SD to virtual 47.2. WMDO-LD RF8.1 is broadcasting its own black sidebars or pillars onto the 16:9 picture in order to reduce the viewing area to 4:3. I am pointing this out in particular because they are NOT using ugly stretch-o-vision to achieve a full 16:9 picture. Hooray for WMDO-LD because they would rather keep their picture in true perspective rather than pull the same ugly crap that WBAL-HD did for the longest time with their ugly stretched picture for local WBAL original 4:3 source material for their non NBC network or local WBAL programming which they stretched to 16:9.

I've heard about Sony TVs (I think?) getting updated with it.

- Trip

Yup. My Bravia self-updated via this service a few months ago. I'm of course against this service :)

The cost of ordering Comcast internet on its own it is about the same as ordering internet plus basic TV in PG County, so probably also as well in Baltimore. With basic TV service then you can get the local networks directly through the wall with your QAM tuner.

seems like internet is $43 and tv is $57 here after 6-month promotions end. I'm pretty positive I'll be able to get local networks with my qam even without basic service...can anyone confirm that? The question I had was if I would be able to get these major networks in HD just hooked up to the wall with my qam tuner or will I have to get an antenna?

seems like internet is $43 and tv is $57 here after 6-month promotions end. I'm pretty positive I'll be able to get local networks with my qam even without basic service...can anyone confirm that? The question I had was if I would be able to get these major networks in HD just hooked up to the wall with my qam tuner or will I have to get an antenna?

When I had Comcast for only INternet, they put a filter on my line that prevented me from getting those channels.
Although I live in Prince William County.

WHUT-HD RF33.1 is broadcasting 1080i 16:9 HD to virtual 32.1. WHUT-SD RF33.2 is broadcasting 480i 4:3 SD to virtual 32.2. 32.2 is featuring a white WHUT logo on the lower right corner of the 4:3 black background.

They really need to move that big WHUT logo over a bit. Nearly half of it is cut off on old tube TVs.

When I had Comcast for only INternet, they put a filter on my line that prevented me from getting those channels.
Although I live in Prince William County.

A friend in VA was so far away from the HCF node [2.5 miles...] they could never get his modem sync'ed unless they took all the filters out.....

Eben,

I have an HR20 receiver. I've tried direct tuning to 7.3 directly and using the up channel. The funny thing is that I can get the substations for other channels like 4.2, 4.3, and 50.2. I'm assuming the signal for the substations is coming from the same source as the other stations.

Hmmm, I have an HR21-100 with AM-21 and am getting 7.3 OTA. Have you tried rebooting your HR20? If that doesn't help, try redoing OTA setup.

When I had Comcast for only INternet, they put a filter on my line that prevented me from getting those channels.
Although I live in Prince William County.

ugh... so what channels are people getting with antennas in the city?

WHUT-HD RF33.1 is broadcasting 1080i 16:9 HD to virtual 32.1. WHUT-SD RF33.2 is broadcasting 480i 4:3 SD to virtual 32.2. 32.2 is featuring a white WHUT logo on the lower right corner of the 4:3 black background.
32.1 has the same studder and audio sync problem as 54.1 on my Dynex (aka Samsung) TV. Oh well, atleast its HD now, and works fine on my other tuners.

Hello, I'm moving to Baltimore (Federal Hill) from Syracuse, NY where TimeWarner uses Switched Digital Video to send some channels. I use a Tivo and they supplied me with a Tuning Adapter via USB that allows me to access those channels with CableCards.

Does Comcast utilize SDV and make tuning adapters available? I've gotten two different answers from Comcast (Online and local office).

Yup. My Bravia self-updated via this service a few months ago. I'm of course against this service

Interestingly, I just found that a friend's new Bravia has no Cablecard slot. Somehow, I thought that they were required on all new sets...

Interestingly, I just found that a friend's new Bravia has no Cablecard slot. Somehow, I thought that they were required on all new sets...

I've never had a set with a CableCard slot, and everything I have here is less than 2 years old. The Bravia is like 8 months old.

I've never had a set with a CableCard slot

Well, given the choices seem to be:


Rent $$ cable box from cableco; have yet another remote to manage
Get cablecard installed in set.
???

#2 has some attraction....

Hello, I'm moving to Baltimore (Federal Hill) from Syracuse, NY where TimeWarner uses Switched Digital Video to send some channels. I use a Tivo and they supplied me with a Tuning Adapter via USB that allows me to access those channels with CableCards.

Does Comcast utilize SDV and make tuning adapters available? I've gotten two different answers from Comcast (Online and local office).

Comcast in Baltimore does not use SDV, so not digital adapter needed - at least as of now.

Well, given the choices seem to be:


Rent $$ cable box from cableco; have yet another remote to manage
Get cablecard installed in set.
???

#2 has some attraction....
My Sony SXRD has a cable card slot. Comcast tried twice to install one for me, but couldn't get it to work properly. I told them to forget it. Cable companies HATE cable cards. I've got cable going straight to my set. Luckily, I never opted for premium channels, so I got could bypass a box.
J

My Sharp Aquos LCDs with cable card slots will only work with S-Cards, not M-Cards.

I was just looking at the Caps' schedule for this season, and roughly a dozen games are getting pushed to CSN+, mostly in November. I wonder if Comcast Sportsnet is any closer to lighting up an HD alternate channel anytime soon. If I'm not mistaken, some of the other CSNs have this already.

Anyone know anything about NFL RedZone? HD? Sports package needed? ETC.

And for the love of God WHEN WILL COMCAST GET SPIKE HD??? It already has HD for OnDemand.

Has anyone with Comcast in Montgomery County been able to get one of the new Motorola DCX 34xx STBs? I went to the Rockville location today and they didn't have any.

I've never had a set with a CableCard slot, and everything I have here is less than 2 years old. The Bravia is like 8 months old.


My 2005 Samsung HD 1080P DLP set had a cable card slot.
My 2008 Samsung DLP and 2008 Samsung LCD does not have a cable card slot.

My 2005 Samsung HD 1080P DLP set had a cable card slot.
My 2008 Samsung DLP and 2008 Samsung LCD does not have a cable card slot.

I get the impression that they are or already have phased out cable cards. Most people never heard of them, and cable companies don't want to lose the revenue (No on demand).
J

I get the impression that they are or already have phased out cable cards. Most people never heard of them, and cable companies don't want to lose the revenue (No on demand).
JYes, most TV manufacturers have phased them out due to lack of demand and loads of customer complaints of them not working due to cable company ineptitude. The cable companies are much better now that they're trained (because of TiVo which have no current alternative except cablecards), but the TV manufacturers are still not going back to them in general.

The cable companies can't phase them out - they're legally required to fully support them.

what's with 13.8 and 13.9? seems to be a dupe of 13.1.

power to burn?

jtm

Seems like some of what WHUT is broadcasting is being sent out correctly, and some of it is getting unnecessarily smashed between horizontal black bars. For example, Sesame Street looks great, but they ran Helvetica all smashed down. You gotta love the irony of getting the children's program right, but botching the presentation of a show with a bunch of designers talking about a font. See attachments for examples.

The second image looks as if someone ran a 4:3 program into an aspect radio converter (ARC) which was set to 16:9 anamorphic stretch.

Or maybe it's a 16:9 source framed for 4:3, then stretched out to 16:9? Ugh.

However, I'll still give the nod to WETA because of their interference issue with WHAG.
What interferrence? WHAG is on 26 and WETA is on 27.

WETA's interference problem is with WFPT-28.

- Trip

Or maybe it's a 16:9 source framed for 4:3, then stretched out to 16:9? Ugh.

The SD version is even worse. Widescreen programs are double-squished. Hopefully they get it figured out soon, but MPT has been doing the same sort of thing for years, and they still haven't gotten it totally right. And they need to move that logo bug over a little bit, because I'd venture to say that most of us don't have TVs that do full 1:1 pixel mapping.

Where I work now has this same sort of thing happen all the time but in reverse. Sometimes network or syndicated programming comes in 16:9 via satellite and whomever captures it doesn't pay attention to the aspect ratio. The program gets ingested into the system and played out 4:3 without being run through an ARC, thus looking all squished and ugly. By the time it starts playing it's too late. But ultimately I get the phone call or E-mail. "Did you see program XYZ?" "Why did it look so bad?"

Other than archived content, hopefully as more 16:9 programming becomes available, this issue will pretty much go away by itself.

For the first time ever, I could not decode WTTG and WDCA. Suspecting that interference was up, I tried for Baltimore and Hampton Roads stations. No luck with Baltimore, but WHRO (normal tropo) and, for the first time, WTKR were popping in. No sign of WAVY, though.

Comcast expands county digital service

Company providing free converters to most basic cable customers


I already got a letter offering this and received my free converters. I'm in MoCo.

Comcast will add the NFL Redzone channel in Baltimore on 9/13 (SD).

I cam finally get all Balt. & Wash stations from Laurel (except WUTB-24) with a Digital Stream converter box and an HDTV UHF/VHF long range antenna. Many other converter box brands (especially Apex) are apprently terrible.

Many other converter box brands (especially Apex) are apprently terrible.What other converter boxes did you try?

I cam finally get all Balt. & Wash stations from Laurel (except WUTB-24) with a Digital Stream converter box and an HDTV UHF/VHF long range antenna. Many other converter box brands (especially Apex) are apprently terrible.

You shouldn't need a long-range antenna from Laurel. Are you in a particularly bad location?

Also, out of curiosity, are you using a rotor? If not, which way did you aim the antenna? It's pretty cool if you can get them all on one aerial without moving it from Laurel MD! I spent a looooong time trying that trick, was never successful. Had to go with 2 separate arrays and use a PC to combine them into a 'seamless' system ..

In the 1950's, the National Bureau of Standards (now NTIS), studied signal strength, i.e. reception capability around the Washington, DC area. Laurel, had the best reception in the area. I learned this from a tech who worked on the project and later worked for me.

In the 1950's, the National Bureau of Standards (now NTIS), studied signal strength, i.e. reception capability around the Washington, DC area. Laurel, had the best reception in the area. I learned this from a tech who worked on the project and later worked for me.
just wanted to say hi art haven't heard from you in a while

I'm in Laurel and I pick up WUTB 24 with no problem since the transition. I still use my UHF-only antenna on the roof with a rotor. When it's aimed at Baltimore, I get all the Baltimore stations which tend to be stronger than the DC stations from my part of Laurel.

just wanted to say hi art haven't heard from you in a while

It is nice hearing from old friends. Thank you

So I have been watching the City's website which slated a late 2009 to early 2010 deployment for fios in alexandria. The date was getting closer. This threw some cold water on any hope I had of getting rid of Comcast any time soon (from the Post):

"Things aren't moving along as quickly in another Fios-deprived jurisdiction, Alexandria. Although a page on the city's Web site predicts Fios availability "in late 2009 or 2010," Verizon has yet to sign a phone or TV franchise agreement with the city, and spokesmen Eric Rabe and Henry Mitchell had no progress to report on that front. On Thursday, Rose Boyd, Alexandria's director of citizen assistance, said the city would revise that page."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090404156.html

Anybody have any idea why there is such a delay?

32.1 has the same studder and audio sync problem as 54.1 on my Dynex (aka Samsung) TV. Oh well, atleast its HD now, and works fine on my other tuners.

OTA WHUT-SD RF 33.2 on virtual 32.2 is now mapping additionally to virtual Channel 1.0 with no PSIP anywhere. WHUT-HD on 32.1 does not have any PSIP either. My Dish VIP722 STB has been receiving both channels with a one second freeze-frame strobe-like picture ever since 32.2 came on. No strobe picture for OTA.

OTA WHUT-SD RF 33.2 on virtual 32.2 is now mapping additionally to virtual Channel 1.0 with no PSIP anywhere. WHUT-HD on 32.1 does not have any PSIP either. My Dish VIP722 STB has been receiving both channels with a one second freeze-frame strobe-like picture ever since 32.2 came on. No strobe picture for OTA.

Sounds like their PSIP encoder went back to factory defaults or just froze up. That happens because after all, it runs under Windows!

Sounds like their PSIP encoder went back to factory defaults or just froze up. That happens because after all, it runs under Windows!

LOL. If it was Linux, it would take a custom kernel build to change, and if was OS/X it would have been locked into Steve-Job's-age-at-time-of-compile.1 without being jailbroken first :) j/k of course Kelly :)

I have an HR20 and an H20 side by side in my living room. The HR20 is hooked up to a 42" plasma and the H20 just got a new 19" LCD so that two football games can be watched at once.

Here is the issue - I read of some over the air issues after the digital switch and a rescan fixed the HR20 completely, but I cannot get the H20 to dispaly 2-1, 9-1, 11-1, or 13-1

I have re-done the set up, rescanned, etc

Any other suggestions?

TIA

Eddie

I have an HR20 and an H20 side by side in my living room. The HR20 is hooked up to a 42" plasma and the H20 just got a new 19" LCD so that two football games can be watched at once.

Here is the issue - I read of some over the air issues after the digital switch and a rescan fixed the HR20 completely, but I cannot get the H20 to dispaly 2-1, 9-1, 11-1, or 13-1

I have re-done the set up, rescanned, etc

Any other suggestions?

TIA

Eddie

Disconnect the H20 from OTA, rescan so it finds nothing, reconnect antenna, rescan.

OTA WHUT-SD RF 33.2 on virtual 32.2 is now mapping additionally to virtual Channel 1.0 with no PSIP anywhere. WHUT-HD on 32.1 does not have any PSIP either. My Dish VIP722 STB has been receiving both channels with a one second freeze-frame strobe-like picture ever since 32.2 came on. No strobe picture for OTA.
I'm also getting 0.0 "data1" from them, I assume. Still have PSIP on 32.1 with the judder. Whoopie.

So any idea what causes the strobe/judder picture?

I'm also getting 0.0 "data1" from them, I assume.

I'm seeing this too, on my Panasonic TV.

I have an HR20 and an H20 side by side in my living room. The HR20 is hooked up to a 42" plasma and the H20 just got a new 19" LCD so that two football games can be watched at once.

Here is the issue - I read of some over the air issues after the digital switch and a rescan fixed the HR20 completely, but I cannot get the H20 to dispaly 2-1, 9-1, 11-1, or 13-1

I have re-done the set up, rescanned, etc

Any other suggestions?

TIA

Eddie

On my H20s (2 of them), I had to delete all channels using the remote, then rescanned. The H20s could not re-allocate a previously used virtual channel assignment whose operating frequency had changed.

Disconnect the H20 from OTA, rescan so it finds nothing, reconnect antenna, rescan.

Thank you, but this did not fix things - even trying again after a system re-boot

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Eddie

So yeah, apparently for Comcast NFL RedZone is only in the 700s. No HD? :confused:

So yeah, apparently for Comcast NFL RedZone is only in the 700s. No HD? :confused:

Maybe that's why they aren't charging $50 like FIOS is? FIOS will have the SD and HD versions.

So I have been watching the City's website which slated a late 2009 to early 2010 deployment for fios in alexandria.
Anybody have any idea why there is such a delay?

I'll ask around but my guess is that Verizontal is asking for the moon; and the city won't budge.

VZ typically [read the Charles County docs] wants to be able to swoop in, skim off the dense, high profit, neighborhoods; and promise to serve the rest of the city whenever they get around to it. The city wants a solid guarantee as to when ALL of the residents will be served because a poor citizen's vote counts as much as a yuppie's.

VZ also won't serve anyone unless they get a cable-tv contract to their liking. While they tell the PSC's how the copper phone plant is obsolete and not worth their maintaining, because [I]fiber is coming!!! they also tell cities You'll never see it unless we get what we want. And what She wants is: no regulation, esp. re: price increases and channels offered.

You can't blame them for trying. They want as much profit as they can get. I'm just glad they've been in Prince William County for over two years now.

I saw that someone posted the Anne Arundell County "World of More" Comcast schedule, but I did not see that anyone posted the Baltimore County Comcast schedule, which is also out now. I received the flier in the mail while I was away on vacation, so I'm not sure the exact day it arrived. All dates are listed as "Starting On or about/around" so take with typical two grains of salt:

1st Round Channel moves - Nov 17 (21 Channels moving to digital equipment only - AnimalPlanet, E, EWTN, Food, FX, Hallmark, HGTV, History, Lifetime, MSNBC, Mtv, Syfy, TBN, TCM, Weather, TLC, TNT, truTV, Travel, TVLand, & Versus - some real biggies in there)

2nd Round Channel moves - Dec 17 (24 Channels moving to digital equipment only - A&E, ABCFamily, BET, Bravo, Cartoon, CNBC, CNN, HLN, CSN, Comedy Central, Discovery, Disc Health, Disney, ESPN, ESPN2, FoxNews, Golf, MASN, Nick, Speed, Spike, TBS, TVOne, USA, VH1 - more big names here too)

New High Definition Channel Adds - Nov 28. All of these are HD, to avoid typing 'HD' over and over again.

BET, BigTen, bio, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CBS College Sports, CMT, CNBC+, HLN, Comedy Central, DisneyXD, E, Encore, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, FoxBiz, fuse, G4, Hallmark, IFC, MLB Exta Innings/NHL Center Ice Featured Games (1 channel), NBA League Pass/MLS Direct Kick Featured Games (1 channel), IND PPV (had this previously, it went away to make room for others, now it's returning?), Lifetime, Lifetime Movies, MGM, MLB Network, Mtv, MSNBC, NBATV, NHL Network, Nick, PlanetGreen, QVC, Spike, Style, TCM, Weather, Tennis Channel, Travel, truTV, tvOne, VH1, We. Channel numbers were also listed, indicating a move of the HD channel block / cluster moving into the 800s, which will match other Comcast systems I have seen channels listed for online.

By my count, that is 44 new HD channels; 3 of which are PPV (the two sports "season" pack ones, and INDPPV) and 3 which are in the Sports Entertainment Pack (BigTen, CBS College Sports, & Tennis), making the other 38 new national HD cable nets. Add that to Baltimore County Comcast's current 43 channels, including 8 local networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, Independent, PBS-DC, & PBS-Balt), 2 regional sports nets (CSNDC and MASN), and 4 premiums (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, & Starz). That should give Comcast Baltimore County subs, like me, a total of 87 HD channels, with about 77 of them available to so-called Digital Classic (I think; I get the terms mixed up), customers. Pretty sweet.

On the minus side, by my count, the "standard service" folks, who currently have 59 channels, will be dropping 45, down to 14 channels, unless they get their digital equipment. I guess this means I have until Nov 17 to get my mother in law her DTAs. The costs of progress!

We don't even have DTAs in the city yet. Maybe we'll get new HD channels in December!:eek:

Quick update from VHF-land here in Elkridge. Finally got around to buying more coax, so I moved the 7777 from the UHF mast to the VHF mast in order to have the shortest possible run from the VHF side. No appreciable difference on 7, but 9 at the moment is seriously locked on (100/100), and now 11 and 13 are actually usable from the back of the antenna (not that I would, but still). So moving the amp definately had the intended benefit, even if it's still not quite enough for a reliable WJLA.

Right now, it looks like if WJLA gets their STA for 52kW, I'll be seriously in business up here. That's almost twice as much power and I'm pretty close as it is !

edit: I do still get some bouts of overload on the VHF side, similar to when my neighbor mows his lawn (already requested he get a new spark plug!). Is there any chance that adding a low/high VHF combiner with a cap on the low VHF input to use it as a filter help with that? I don't know where most of that interference would come from, but I'm guessing it's on the lower frequencies. I don't expect a magic bullet, just curious if it's worth the few $$ and my time.

edit 2: In case anyone cares, my 2009 Fall Season D.C. setup will be as follows. A 42XG for channels 33-50, the Y5-7-13 for 7 and 9, and a custom made single-channel yagi JoinTenna-ed in for 27. The 42XG is great at the higher frequencies, not so much on the lower ones. It seems to really fall apart under UHF 35 or so. (33 and 34 are so powerful, it's still fine for those) Until tonight, I had it JoinTenna-ed in for 48/50 (@49) in combination with a C4, but the C4 has proven to be extremely unreliable for 35 and 36. I lose 24 and 30 in this setup, but honestly the novelty of those channels has long since worn off for me :) Building the yagi for 27 was a lot easier. I might contact TinLee about a custom diplexer for the channels under 33, but that seems like a lot of $$ for foreign news and channel 15. Maybe if one of the VHF channels moves back into lower UHF.

This stuff is fun ... when it works. lol.

Thank you, but this did not fix things - even trying again after a system re-boot

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Eddie

Try the H20 specific thread.

Anyone know where I can buy the Silver Sensor or DB2 locally?

What is up with the FiOS move of the DC channels from their logical locations to 516 - 519?!?

They finally did this re-alignment overnight. The IMG hasn't been updated (guide was updated as of ~noon) on the VZ box, and my TiVo doesn't have data either, although the channel map has updated and they can be added manually. I put a lineup change request on the TiVo website.

If anyone in Howard/AA counties lost the postcard, the changes are:

SD
WRC from 4 to 16
WTTG from 5 to 17
WJLA from 7 to 18
WUSA from 9 to 19
WMDO from 21 to 24
UNI from 20 to 21
WUTB from 24 to 9

HD

WRC from 504 to 516
WTTG from 505 to 517
WJLA from 507 to 518
WUSA from 509 to 519
WUTB from 524 to 509

Since the channels are virtual, it all seems pointless, but it has happened!:confused:

Is there any chance that adding a low/high VHF combiner with a cap on the low VHF input to use it as a filter help with that?I would certainly try it. I may have an extra one you can use to test with. Both channel 11 & 13 are much improved here in much of northern VA with a LO VHF/FM trap.

The 42XG is great at the higher frequencies, not so much on the lower ones. It seems to really fall apart under UHF 35 or so.
I find the 42XG/91XG to work quite well on channels 21 & 22.

They finally did this re-alignment overnight. The IMG hasn't been updated (guide was updated as of ~noon) on the VZ box, and my TiVo doesn't have data either, although the channel map has updated and they can be added manually. I put a lineup change request on the TiVo website.

If anyone in Howard/AA counties lost the postcard, the changes are:

SD
WRC from 4 to 16
WTTG from 5 to 17
WJLA from 7 to 18
WUSA from 9 to 19
WMDO from 21 to 24
UNI from 20 to 21
WUTB from 24 to 9

HD

WRC from 504 to 516
WTTG from 505 to 517
WJLA from 507 to 518
WUSA from 509 to 519
WUTB from 524 to 509

Since the channels are virtual, it all seems pointless, but it has happened!:confused:

Well that seems like an odd choice.

So was this only for the area between DC and Baltimore?

Well that seems like an odd choice.

So was this only for the area between DC and Baltimore?

As far as I know, it was only done on the Howard/AA system.

RCN to add NFL RedZone HD.

http://www.yachtchartersmagazine.com/node/1103429

Got this in the mail today for Montgomery County - the digtal transition (elimination of analog channels) will finally begin on November 30 (15 analog channels deleted) with the second phase about 35 days later (January 6) when an additional 21 analog channels will be deleted. So after the transition only analog channels 2 through 34 will be available. On December 12th we will be getting 48 new HD channels. :)

Based on this Comcast should have room after January 6 to add a lot more channels. :)http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=152382&d=1252703662

The RedZone SD is in the Comcast guide in Baltimore. Can't confirm if the channel is live.

I have NFLRZ at 734 and NFLRD at 263 near the HD channels. They are on different QAMs. 263 could be the HD version. It wasn't announced like 734 was.

I sold out to the man.

I was home sick today and thanks to the rain had a most miserable experience trying to watch TV. In fairness, I think my house grounding rod may need to be replaced which is probably MOST of the problem with the rain, but still. It was so frustrating trying to watch the US Open coverage on either 9 or 13, that I've had it.

I ordered the FiOS "Local TV" package and I'm now out of this game. VHF sucks and I'm done trying. Fall season starts in a week, and I absolutely have to have good recordings to send my lovely wife who's in Germany for the next YEAR patching up our injured servicemen and servicewomen. No CBS at all that works during inclement weather is just not an acceptable situation.

I still get to keep one antenna to pick up the slack with missing FiOS channels from D.C. (20, 50, 66), so my fun isn't completely over, but still ... I've had enough. Those channels are easy.

Thank you all for your assistance and time lately, but I'm probably going to just fade away into hard-wired obliviousness here. LOL. Oh, and if you'll forgive me ... SCREW VHF.

Noooo!

- Trip

I wonder if we could pay for basic cable for everyone if the FCC auctioned the entire broadcast TV spectrum. >-)

Got this in the mail today for Montgomery County - the digtal transition (elimination of analog channels) will finally begin on November 30 (15 analog channels deleted) with the second phase about 35 days later (January 6) when an additional 21 analog channels will be deleted. So after the transition only analog channels 2 through 34 will be available. On December 12th we will be getting 48 new HD channels. :)

Based on this Comcast should have room after January 6 to add a lot more channels. :)

I got the same mailing -- great news. I just wish the switch were happening faster, so I could see more hockey, football, basketball, and baseball in HD this fall.

I also noticed that we're getting MGM HD (new) and TCM HD. Great news for movie buffs.

Noooo!

- Trip

I did the best I could for almost 2 years now my friend, I was just pushed over the edge today. To be honest, the biggest selling points were that they would have it installed next Sunday (24 hours before the season starts!), I'm quintupling my Internet speed (is 3Mb/s, will be 15Mb/s) and most importantly ... when you add phone/15-5 data and Local TV together, it's CHEAPER than we're paying them now for just phone+DSL. You can't compete with that. Local TV is 100% ClearQAM, so all I need to do it plug it into what I've got going now, set up the TVs and Media Center for QAM instead of ATSC and I'm done.

I'm actually looking forward to this, from the hobbyist perspective, after thinking about it a bit more. Consider the freedom I'll suddenly have! I can go mess with whatever I want to mess with OTA, and there is no timeline anymore. No need to have it all working again by 8:00pm. I can totally try for Philly or Delmarva channels now. Goodness knows I have the equipment, it's just not pointed in the right direction.

If there's any regret, it's that I won't have the complete 2-city setup working anymore and I can't give you TSReader reports anymore. That was really fun for me :) I'll still be able to hook you up with stats from 4 (48), 5 (36), 20 (35), 32 (33), 50, and 66 (34) from the antenna that I intend to keep at this point, though [42XG + CM7777]. Those are the only channels that particular aerial gets 99-100% from the location I happen to have it :-)

I really do believe that I'll have MORE fun now in the end since that whole "has to work" restriction will be gone. It was $12.99/mo, you can't blame me, right?? Don't think badly of me!!! heh.

The RedZone SD is in the Comcast guide in Baltimore. Can't confirm if the channel is live.

I have NFLRZ at 734 and NFLRD at 263 near the HD channels. They are on different QAMs. 263 could be the HD version. It wasn't announced like 734 was.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=152442&d=1252751080

I'd say that seals it.

I was home sick today and thanks to the rain had a most miserable experience trying to watch TV.

It was so frustrating trying to watch the US Open coverage on either 9 or 13, that I've had it.


I am in Columbia, and I am seeing the same issues as you are. Granted, I don't watch TV much since we turned off Fios and moved to an antenna (about 6 weeks ago), but this is the first time I've seen this issue. I've lost 9, 11 and 13 this morning, which is annoying only because my kids like to watch the CBS Saturday cartoons.

I've got a ChannelMaster 4228HD on the roof pointed toward DC. Because of my nearly in-line location between DC and Baltimore, the backside of it picks up all my Baltimore stations, and it has been working flawlessly up until today.

In your opinion, is there any OTA solution for me? Would an amplifier be of any use at all?

In your opinion, is there any OTA solution for me? Would an amplifier be of any use at all?Unfortunately an amplifier will probably make things worse. The best solution is to augment the 4228 with a VHF-HI antenna. Combine the 2 antennas using a UVSJ, and you should get 7,9,11,& 13 (possibly 8) with the antenna pointed towards DC.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=Y5-7-13&d=AntennaCraft-Y5713-HighbandBroadband-VHF-HD-Yagi-for-Channels-713-(Y5713)&c=TV

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=UVSJ

I look at the list of new HD channels on Comcast in Montgomery County and I want to cry. We in Arlington (and Alexandria) have Scientific Atlanta equipment, which means no DTA's, which means no analog migration, which means no new HD channels for probably the next year. And Fios is widely available in Arlington (but not in my apartment) so I don't know why they are so slow or don't seem to care about the competition. Make sure when they add those new channels, you give us a full report so us Arlingtonians can dream!

Got this in the mail today for Montgomery County - the digtal transition (elimination of analog channels) will finally begin on November 30 (15 analog channels deleted) with the second phase about 35 days later (January 6) when an additional 21 analog channels will be deleted. So after the transition only analog channels 2 through 34 will be available. On December 12th we will be getting 48 new HD channels. :)

Based on this Comcast should have room after January 6 to add a lot more channels. :)
I haven't gotten the info in the mail yet.
Those listed as going digital are already available via QAM tuner without a box. Will they still be available as such? If they decide to block them, and require an upgraded subscription, I'll cancel my cable.
J

it depends on where they put them. if below ch100 then it's possible they'll still be on basic and clearqam.

i haven't seen any channel assignments for these where i live in balto county.

jtm

it depends on where they put them. if below ch100 then it's possible they'll still be on basic and clearqam.

i haven't seen any channel assignments for these where i live in balto county.

jtm
I believe they are, but out of curiosity, why does that matter? Several of the local channels that are clearqam are on the 108 region.
J

Just got the flier. I contacted comcast, and they said I could use my QAM tuner to get the new digital channels (no box). They were actually friendly and helpful!
J

Hi all,

I live in downtown Baltimore and am thinking of the buying the Terk HDTVa antenna (maybe even the ss-3000). Has anyone had experience with this antenna in the city area? I only really care about getting abc, nbc, cbs, fox and possibly pbs. What antennas have people used in the city and how have they been? Will my qam tuner be able to pick these up if the antenna works fine?

Thanks for any help, it would be much appreciated.

** forgot to ask -- are these channels broadcast in hd?

It was $12.99/mo, you can't blame me, right?? Don't think badly of me!!! heh.

Please report your opinion after you have the Local Option in service. I find that Fios Local for my address includes a total of 66 channels for $12.99/month. I think I would be interested in at least 40 of these channels, and 9 are listed as HD.

Hi all,

I live in downtown Baltimore and am thinking of the buying the Terk HDTVa antenna (maybe even the ss-3000). Has anyone had experience with this antenna in the city area? I only really care about getting abc, nbc, cbs, fox and possibly pbs. What antennas have people used in the city and how have they been? Will my qam tuner be able to pick these up if the antenna works fine?

Thanks for any help, it would be much appreciated.

** forgot to ask -- are these channels broadcast in hd?

I have the cheapest Wal-Mart antenna in my office across from Mercy Hosp. and get all of those channels. (Yes, they all carry HD programming.) I am on the West side of the 14th floor but a few feet away from a window, with multiple A/C chillers and and ducts on the roof next door, between me & TV hill.

I sold out to the man.

I was home sick today and thanks to the rain had a most miserable experience trying to watch TV. In fairness, I think my house grounding rod may need to be replaced which is probably MOST of the problem with the rain, but still. It was so frustrating trying to watch the US Open coverage on either 9 or 13, that I've had it.

I ordered the FiOS "Local TV" package and I'm now out of this game. VHF sucks and I'm done trying. Fall season starts in a week, and I absolutely have to have good recordings to send my lovely wife who's in Germany for the next YEAR patching up our injured servicemen and servicewomen. No CBS at all that works during inclement weather is just not an acceptable situation.

I still get to keep one antenna to pick up the slack with missing FiOS channels from D.C. (20, 50, 66), so my fun isn't completely over, but still ... I've had enough. Those channels are easy.

Thank you all for your assistance and time lately, but I'm probably going to just fade away into hard-wired obliviousness here. LOL. Oh, and if you'll forgive me ... SCREW VHF.
unfortunately i went over to the dark side also, being up in harford county out in the woods i took it all hook line and sinker. one consolation i get to watch my beloved gators football.

Don't think badly of me!!! heh.

Nah, you're fine. I can't blame you given the unusable CBS station problem.

- Trip

My Sony SXRD has a cable card slot. Comcast tried twice to install one for me, but couldn't get it to work properly. I told them to forget it. Cable companies HATE cable cards. I've got cable going straight to my set. Luckily, I never opted for premium channels, so I got could bypass a box.
J


Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.

Anyone having glitching issues with WJZ HD via Directv? Been watching the Ravens game and it's been dropping out and glitching the whole game.

Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.
It turned out, that I didn't need a cable card-I just wanted the locals in HD, and they didn't say that they were QAM available.
You just have to do a scan, and see what turns up. I don't know if you can get premium channels via QAM since I only pay for expanded basic. The placement is somewhat random, so it helps to bookmark the channels, or put them on you favorites list. I do get TNT-HD and Universal-HD. I used to get random VOD, but they plugged that leak. That's fine, since usually all I ever got was either kid's shows or porn.
J

I was attempting to watch the Ravens game yesterday over the air on WJZ and having trouble when I noticed that one ear of the antenna still had a couple of inches to come out. To my surprise that made all the difference.

I was wondering if any of the HD news laggards in the area would be rolling out HD News in time for the fall season.

Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.

You should get what you pay for; except no on demand and guide etc.

For COMCAST Montgormery County I was getting a different set of channels on two of my cable card tvs. PITA to get a technician out and check out the cable card on the one set as to why some of my premiums weren't coming in; but after that visit I was still missing some. Turns out they didn't have correct subscription information for me in the central database tied to the card in that TV. And the standard help techs can't fix it; you have to get to another level of help if you have problems. But they have to fix it; in my case no charge for the house visit but I had to take off and be home.

One problem with cable cards is that since there is no guide, people like me tend to hide the unsubscribed channels to minimize hassle when surfing channels. So when new channels are added you won't see these if you have them hidden for surfing convenience.

I was wondering if any of the HD news laggards in the area would be rolling out HD News in time for the fall season.

Heh, I'm almost convinced that WRC will never, EVER roll out HD news.

Heh, I'm almost convinced that WRC will never, EVER roll out HD news.
Me too.
J

What normally comes on CBS at 9pm on Mondays? According to my FiOS guide, WUSA will be airing the Dr. Oz premiere tonight at that time. Assuming that's accurate, I guess it's because they couldn't air it this afternoon due to U.S. Open coverage.

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the DC Area and new to this thread, though I've been on the forums for a little while now. I've been having some problems with my Comcast HD signal and was wondering if anybody else has seen this.

I've got the Motorola HD Box (DCX3200) and I get a pixelated picture when using my AT&T cell phone. It appears to only effect SciHD (217) and FXHD (221) to my knowledge, but it may effect more than that.

Some quick Googling revealed I'm not crazy ( http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r20569019-HD-signal-interference-w-ATT-wireless~start=20 ) but I was wondering if I'm the only one in the DC Area with this problem.

Does anyone have a channel list by frequency like what is posted in that link? I'd like to confirm the range of channels affected by my phone.

Does anyone think the Ferrite beads will do anything? My experience with Comcast tells me I'm going to get the SOL response from them, so I figured I'd check with the experts.

Thanks in advance!

Does anyone think the Ferrite beads will do anything? My experience with Comcast tells me I'm going to get the SOL response from them, so I figured I'd check with the experts.

Thanks in advance!

Radio Shack has some ferrite chokes they stock, it can't hurt to try. You can undoubtedly get them WAY cheaper somewhere else, though :cool:

I personally don't think it will do much, though. It's probably more likely that the tuner inside the cable box isn't adequately shielded. Do you have the coax grounded? I think cable does it like you would with OTA with a grounding block outside the house hooked to the Earth ground. Also make sure all your connections are good through the entire system. I've heard that loose connectors can cause an increased sensitivity to interference.

Are you using an amplifier anywhere? If so, you might want to try unhooking that to see if perhaps the amp is making things worse.

One easy way to see if maybe your system itself might have a flaw would be to find somebody else with the same box and use your phone over there :)

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.Yikes!

WBAL likes to do things half way. They have two syndicated shows in HD and two that should be. They have HD news but still no DD5.1 at any time.

Anyone having glitching issues with WJZ HD via Directv? Been watching the Ravens game and it's been dropping out and glitching the whole game.

I was at the game and recording it OTA through my DISH DVR. The DVR's OTA tuner is pretty flaky and I lost almost the entire game due to whatever problems they were having.

Anyone else lose MPT Channel 22? I'm pointed towards Baltimore TV Hill but have been able to get channel 22 with 80%+ signal on the backside of my antenna (only 6 miles away due south). The last couple of weeks I've noticed that their signal strength had degraded a bit but I had no reception problems. Last night (Mon) they were completely gone - 22.1, 22.2, and 22.3. I could still receive 26.[1-4], 14.1, 50.[1-2] all from DC on the backside of the antenna. I rescanned a couple of times too - nothing. Have they jacked around with their xmission pattern?

My daughter is less than 2 miles from the tower and occasionally loses all signal. I think they've got a screw loose.

jtm

Anyone else lose MPT Channel 22? I'm pointed towards Baltimore TV Hill . . . You may have been experiencing tropo activity from RF channel 42 in Philadelphia last night. The activity was moderate last night.

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

It was HD on WUSA today. Hard to believe that's the same tiny studio that Late Night with Conan O'Brien used for 16 years. "Oprah money" indeed.

I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!

I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!

Here's a post from a couple months ago.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16664202#post16664202

I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!I've put up 2 antenna systems recently in the Manassas, & Leesburg areas. The Baltimore stations come in much better in Leesburg than in Manassas, but neither location provided "reliable" digital reception. The heavy air traffic from Dulles airport is a deal breaker in most of these areas.

WJZ & WBAL are not even 100% in Fairfax or Arlington using a Winegard YA-1713. You'll see an occasional hiccup that you never see on the Baltimore UHF stations. And you can forget watching them with a thunderstorm within 20-30 miles. Unfortunately, the FCC didn't do enough research on this VHF thing.:(

You may have been experiencing tropo activity from RF channel 42 in Philadelphia last night. The activity was moderate last night.

Seems that might have been it - I rescanned again tonight and Channel 22.[1-3] MPT is back on the air.

My daughter is less than 2 miles from the tower and occasionally loses all signal. I think they've got a screw loose.

jtm

I've never had drop outs from Channel 22 before - they have been rock solid. I wonder if your daughter is suffering from signal overload (I had that problem after WJZ 13 changed to their directional antennas).

Looks like WUSA is finally doing 16:9 promos for local programming and news. Unfortunately, like WTTG, they're in SD. At least the one I saw for Dr. Oz and the afternoon programming block was. Couldn't tell if the bump for the 11pm weather forecast was or not.

@Jim Miller:

FWIW, 22 (42) is rediculously powerful from here in Elkridge. It's the only DTV channel I can tune by simply putting my finger on the coax jack (no lie). I would seriously consider overload (as per hsweiss) given her distance from the tower.

Time will probably tell on this one. Tropo comes and goes, but as we move into the winter months, if the issue starts to get worse and worse, overload becomes more and more likely.

You could contact WMPT to see if they would hook you up with a single channel attenuator for 42 given your proximity, but be advised that you'll almost undoubtedly lose 54 (40) and 24 (41) from Baltimore, if those are a concern. I believe Channel Master's JoinTennas have been discontinued, but if in the end you feel that a single channel injector/attenuator is in order, a company named TinLee still makes them. Probably more $$ than it's worth.

$0.02 :)

edit: I didn't even ask ... are you using an amplifier?

Anyone else have Mont. County Comcast play peek-a-boo with some of the locals yesterday? I seem to have lost some of them again. Have they moved them (again)?
J

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

WBAL had shown a promo in at least widescreen. False advertising.

Both Wheel and Jeopardy! were in SD last night on WJLA, but the Leon Harris news special at 8pm (Pre-empting a repeat of Wipeout) was in HD!

Both Wheel and Jeopardy! were in SD last night on WJLA, but the Leon Harris news special at 8pm (Pre-empting a repeat of Wipeout) was in HD!I thought Wipeout was new?

I know it ran earlier in the summer. They had ads for it at every movie I saw at the theater.

I thought Wipeout was new?

Not for us. Kudos to WJLA for picking the timeslot of ABC's only summer hit to air some time-wasting news special on healthcare reform. :mad:

Not for us. Kudos to WJLA for picking the timeslot of ABC's only summer hit to air some time-wasting news special on healthcare reform. :mad:
They're going to air that episode of Wipeout again, don't worry. It's on at like 2am some evening. Check your Tivo season pass. Probably won't be in HD tho.

Anybody getting Channel Available Shortly on FOX-HD in Montgomery County? First episode of Fringe and I'm watching in SD...so lame

Fringe was good tonight!

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

So are you saying the power increase has now been implemented?

- Trip

So are you saying the power increase has now been implemented?

- Trip

Yes, 52kw ERP

Awesome news. I hope it helps. I hope you can convince sister station WSET down here to do a power boost too if their move back to VHF is as problematic as VHF moves have been elsewhere.

- Trip

Dr. Oz is in HD on WBAL now. It was SD when I last checked on Monday.

Anyone else have Mont. County Comcast play peek-a-boo with some of the locals yesterday? I seem to have lost some of them again. Have they moved them (again)?
J

I did yet another rescan. The locals are now at 4.1, 5.1 etc., even without a box. Go figure.
Its about time they did something logical.
J

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

Robert,
I had a solid signal back in June, 99% on My DISH 612/722 boxes. Today I can't get a lock on your signal at all. Still getting WUSA right around 99%.

WNUV CW54 still has glitches when they show syndicated HD shows. Depending on what equipment you are using, the show will blink to a screen that say "off air" for a split second. I am currently watching House of Payne while this is occurring. I am using a USDTV HD box OTA. This is the only one that reacts this way.

Yes, 52kw ERP

Not seeing any change here. Very similar signal as Ch. 9 like before.

Wizards Announce TV Schedule

The Washington Wizards and Comcast SportsNet released their 2009-2010 broadcast schedule today. It features all 82 regular season games plus three preseason games, including 66 on Comcast SportsNet, 14 on CSN+, one on the Comcast Network and 15 national television appearances. Fifty-two games will be in high definition.

The preseason games to be broadcast are Oct. 9 vs. Dallas (in high definition), Oct. 14 at Cleveland and Oct. 20 at Philadelphia. The regular season begins Oct. 27 at Dallas.

Seven games will be televised on ESPN, one on TNT and eight on NBA-TV.

ESPN: Nov. 4 vs. Miami, Nov. 18 vs. Cleveland, Nov. 27 at Miami, Dec. 18 at Golden State, March 7 at Boston and April 7 at Orlando

TNT: Dec. 10 vs. Boston

NBA-TV: Nov. 21 at San Antonio, Nov. 28 vs. Charlotte, Dec. 26 at Minnesota, Dec. 28 at Memphis, Jan. 18 vs. Portland, Feb. 22 vs. Chicago and Mar. 13 vs. Orlando

For the complete local broadcast schedule visit www.csnwashington.com.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2009/09/wizards_announce_tv_schedule.html?wprss=wizardsinsider

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

Solid signal in Southern York County, PA (east of I-83). I do get dropouts during certian weather events. But generally very good reception.

Wizards Announce TV Schedule


For the complete local broadcast schedule visit www.csnwashington.com.


Marcus,

No complete schedule on the above link?!

Yes, 52kw ERPI'm picking up 7-1 OTA for the first time since the transition. No breakup at all.

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

As of today, WJLA is completely unusable from here in Elkridge, MD. It's gotten a great deal worse. Almost impossible to get a signal lock at all. Haven't made any changes at all on this end, just tried to watch RTN and decided to poke my head over here when I couldn't. It's not amplifier overload, WUSA 9 and all UHF channels are fine. Ideas?

edit: Hooked a tuner directly to the antenna, same issue. WUSA is 100% perfect right now, WJLA has a very strong signal but only a 35% S/N ratio and will not lock. It was an 85-90% S/N ratio previously (after adding a low VHF filter). Interestingly enough, a homemade UHF Yagi antenna with extreme negative gain on VHF 7 I have can lock the channel for brief periods of time. My guess at this point is extreme multipath (that Yagi I made locks 11 and 13 from the back without any issue too - I love that antenna). I almost feel bad for saying this, but from my location I think 52kW is actually too much! lol

Will try an attenuator at the antenna, even if it's just academic to do so. I don't need WUSA tonight for anything!

edit 2: Attenuator = no love. It's a variable 0-20dB attenuator. WUSA disappears completely about 25% on the knob, WJLA stays at 100% strength and a really bad S/N ratio until I'm almost at the maximum 20dB, then it disappears. Using a Y5-7-13 in an attic. Gotta be multipath that wasn't there yesterday. Again, I realize this is academic at best, and I've already decided to go with a FiOS Locals Only package (Sunday!!!) to solve my DTV reception issues with WJLA, WUSA, WBAL and WJZ.

Not worried about it for my own purposes. Just trying to provide meaningful feedback while I still have the equipment to do so in place. eBay firesale starts Monday! LOL.

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert
Solid signal for 7 now in Annapolis MD near Annapolis High School. Much stronger than 9, which I still struggle with. To round out the VHF in our area, 11 and 13 from Baltimore are fine. Prior to today, I struggled with 7 and 9 -- now only 9.

Marcus,

No complete schedule on the above link?!

http://www.nba.com/wizards/news/tvschedule_090917.html

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.

I can now receive channel 7 (WJLA) with an EZ-HD antenna http://www.dennysantennaservice.com/ez_hd_tv_Antenna.html (same as an RCA ANT751) leaning against the wall in a second-floor bedroom, connected to a Channel Master CM 7777 preamp and a Zenith DTT901 digital converter box. My zip code is 21046.

I still can't receive channel 9 (WUSA) with the same setup.

(I can still receive channels 7 and 9 with my rooftop (old) CM 4228 antenna and CM 7777 preamp.)

WJLA went from 99% strength and zero dropouts to 75-80% strength with the occasional dropout here in College Park. WUSA is still at 99% strength. I'm using a RCA ANT751 antenna and have tried swapping between Winegard HDP-269 and AP8700 pre-amps. But I still get dropouts either way now.

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.
I believe that WJLA gave me 100% signal before. Now it is at 85% at all antenna angles from 0 t0 260 degrees. It drops to as low as 75% as I rotate the attic 4228 antenna to 360 degrees. The performance at 85% is excellent, but I never saw the insensitivity to antenna angle before. I get good signals from all the channels except WUBT, which doesn't go above 5% at any angle.
This was my report of tests about 9:30 AM. Now at 2:00 PM the signal is at 100% instead of 85%, and still not sensitive to antenna angle.

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.

Robert, thank you and WJLA for putting forth the effort on this. I really think you guys are doing the broadcast TV community a major service by testing out increased VHF power for DTV.

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.

WJLA has been mostly unwatchable for the last few days for me here in Fredericksburg. It was very solid before. My tuner (HDHomerun) shows a "Signal Quality" alternating between 0% and 40% and a "Symbol Quality" at a constant 0%. If possible please return it to the way it was now that the new shows are starting up.

Thursday night there was a glitch with Comcast in my area. Or at least the feed going to my house. It happened at around 8:10 PM. I was watching Bones in HD and for about a minute or so the channel changed to something else and then eventually it went back to Bones. At the same time I was taping Weekend Update on NBC. On my tape at about the same time it went from NBC to some local county feed for a minute or so and then returned back to NBC.

It was very weird. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.

Robert,

The signal appears to be more stable here in Shady Side, MD (30 miles directly East of DC). Before you increased power, my picture would pixelate often. In addition, I don't need to have my antenna so precisely pointed as before for channel 7.

I have an outdoor (roof-mounted) fringe VHF/UHF yagi with CM 7777 preamp and receive all Baltimore, DC area, and Salisbury stations well at my location.

What type of polarization are you guys running? I've heard that some of the DTV coverage problems can be fixed on VHF by running elliptical or circular polarization vice horizontal. This type of change may be especially helpful for people using indoor antennas or maybe even attempting to watch your ATSC-M/H broadcast in the future.

Steve L.

Comcast has added a second HD PPV channel in Baltimore on channel 259.

FYI, WJLA 7 is coming in fine again tonight. Maybe they put the power level back or adjusted something else?

edit: while most of my rediculously elaborate TV setup has been unhooked since the original post and hidden from prying Verizon eyes, that UHF Yagi I mentioned before is still hooked up, and I'm still getting WJLA on it! (And not WUSA, so I don't believe Tropo is at work here). I *think* they're still at 52kW and must have changed something else. Polarization? Robert?

Are you farther out fringe folks still receiving WJLA tonight? It's looking very very good from Elkridge, MD as compared with yesterday.

Are you farther out fringe folks still receiving WJLA tonight? It's looking very very good from Elkridge, MD as compared with yesterday.

Yes, I got a solid signal in Fredericksburg last night and it seems to still be solid this morning (no changes in my setup).

Comcast DC with direct coax connection -- has anyone else lost MHz this morning? It was there yesterday (at 22.1 - 10) and now , poof, gone. I rescanned and I'm significantly down on the number of analog stations being tuned in -- and some of digitals that were in the clear are disappearing, now, too. In addition to Mhz disappearing, Fox HD, which was coming in around 16 has moved to 5.1 and MPT HD and subchannels-- which were coming in around 16.3, 4, 5 is now blank .... apparently moved back to 22, -- which may be why MHZ's ten subchannels have disappeared. Did any of you get a mailing about reduction /movement of channels? Losing MHz is an unhappy surprise... though, it is good that MPT is back - presumably for good...

Also, do you get AMC and TCM in the clear in HD? They are showing up as being 'scrambled' here, but others in Md have told me they get it without a STB.

Thanks for any info you can share.

I never get any audio on 47.2 LATV with my Dynex 13" CRT TV. Is anyone else getting audio on that sub channel?

I noticed that 66.1 and 66.2 had rock solid video yesterday, but 66.3 and 66.4 would pixilate when there was significant movement. Similarly, 7.1 was solid during a football game, but 7.3 similarly seemed bit starved. Does anyone know if the less important sub channels get less forward error correction? I was on an outstanding antenna when I observed this (over 200 feet above ground level AGL, line of sight, typical 10 dBmV or more signal strength, signal quality tested excellent on my Blonder Tongue BTPDA-4)

I never get any audio on 47.2 LATV with my Dynex 13" CRT TV. Is anyone else getting sudio on that sub channel?Yes.

Mike, have you had any luck with Virginia Public Television at the high rise building in Mclean?

Thanks, Glen

Comcast DC with direct coax connection -- has anyone else lost MHz this morning? It was there yesterday (at 22.1 - 10) and now , poof, gone. I rescanned and I'm significantly down on the number of analog stations being tuned in -- and some of digitals that were in the clear are disappearing, now, too. In addition to Mhz disappearing, Fox HD, which was coming in around 16 has moved to 5.1 and MPT HD and subchannels-- which were coming in around 16.3, 4, 5 is now blank .... apparently moved back to 22, -- which may be why MHZ's ten subchannels have disappeared. Did any of you get a mailing about reduction /movement of channels? Losing MHz is an unhappy surprise... though, it is good that MPT is back - presumably for good...

Also, do you get AMC and TCM in the clear in HD? They are showing up as being 'scrambled' here, but others in Md have told me they get it without a STB.

Thanks for any info you can share.

Comcast Mont. County did the same thing as far as locals go. Still have MHZ, which I believe is right next to MPT. I don't think I get AMC or TCM in HD, but I do get TNT-HD and Universal-HD without a STB.
J

I'm getting very choppy audio during the Comcast rebroadcast of the Redskins game right now on WTTG 5 HD (15-1) -- anyone else experiencing this? I have some suspicion that my audio card might be to blame, but I'm not sure. Is it the feed, or is it me?

Thanks,
Adam

I measure OTA signal strength using two Dishnetwork STB receivers. One STB is the VIP-622 and the other is the VIP-722. Each STB has a 75-ohm input to which an RG-6 OTA antenna can be attached. The on-screen menu is then able to display each of the OTA DTV channels and sub-channels and also display a signal strength.

Before June 12, I received WMAR-DT2 (RF-52) a solid 100+ on both STBs. The meter stops at 100. Post transition, WMAR-DT2 assumed the former facilities of WJZ-DT and switched to RF-38. My signal strength dropped to 91-92 on both STBs, the exact signal strength of WJZ-DT when it used to use RF-38.

Now and possibly within the past few days, I am now receiving a 99-100 reading for WMAR-DT. This is a full time increase of around 8. I say full time because the meter is a steady mostly 100 or infrequent 99. Prior to the past few days, WMAR never exceeded 91-92 maximum even when my roof mounted antenna was optimumly aimed at the transmitter.

BTW, I have not changed the direction that my roof antenna has been pointing to for at least the past three weeks.

Has anyone else noticed any improvement for WMAR-DT2 (RF-38) recently? Does anyone who monitors the FCC database or anyone else for that matter know of any facilities changes for WMAR-DT?

Hey guys/gals .... if I wanted to split a cable-level signal 10 ways, which do you think is the better option:

1) Run into 6-way splitter, then branch off to a 4-way drop-amp

2) Run into a 2-way splitter, then branch off to a 6-way splitter and a 4-way splitter

There's plenty of signal to go around, and both seem to work about the same (and both are apparently sufficient), but I'm wondering what you think is the "better" way of doing this. Basically, I have a 6-way that drives the house wiring and a 4-way to drive my HDHomeRun tuners. I would say that the HDHomeRuns are more important, since they are used a LOT more than the TV's internal tuners.

I know, not specifically related to Balto/DC HDTV, but I trust you guys/gals. I can make it on topic .... WJLA still looks great from here in Elkridge tonight over-the-air.

FYI, WJLA 7 is coming in fine again tonight. Maybe they put the power level back or adjusted something else?

I'm not getting diddly squat/zippo in Alex. Va/Kingstowne area. Balt ch 2 coming in almost ok, so watched a little king kong there...

I can't seem to get WUSA today... but WJLA 7 certainly has improved here for me in Herndon. I use to get between 65 to 69 signal strength on dish VIP622 now it's in upper 70s and lower 80s...Thank you for upping the signal.

The EPG on Chan 20 has been empty for several days.

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

I'm located 12 miles NW of Hagerstown, the increased power has made an OK at night / nothing durning the day signal, to a rock solid 24/7 signal for me. Hope they let you keep the increased power.

http://www.nba.com/wizards/news/tvschedule_090917.html

Marcus,

Thanks very much.

I am between Charles Town and Martinsburg off Rt. 9 in West Virginia and WJLA has gone from a marginal 60% to a solid 70% on my Tivo, while WUSA has dropped from 56% to 48-50% in the last month, and is now basically unwatchable.

It is clear the FCC model for VHF power is flawed and all VHF Hi Channels need significantly more power to reach the same viewers. I am not talking about interference, just plain signal level.

My setup is a YA-1713 VHF with a XG91 UHF and CM 7777 on a rotor 35' height, no trees or other local obstructions.

Following-up on my earlier posts, WJLA was unable to locate a suitable UHF channel in and around Washington, DC. WJLA is now focused on solving, if at all possible, the myriad of reception problems that have arisen on high-band VHF channels since the DTV transition.

As part of this effort, WJLA recently received temporary authority from the FCC to increase WJLA's ERP. The FCC approved this increase to allow WJLA to conduct testing to determine if the resulting stronger signals overcome any of the reception problems.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

Robert, Thanks a lot for doing this. My respect for Channel 7 grew tremendously.
It is puzzling, because before DTV switch among analog channels 7 and especially 9 were the least noisy channels (among 4 - 66) in Manassas VA, especially 9. So, I presumed that digital channels are quite robust against noise. To my surprise they completely disappeared after the switch. I have rooftop antenna with about 36 db amplifier tuned to the max amplification.
Sometimes I could receive them with sound and/or video freezes very late at night. More often I could watch channel 2 (than 7), but it is not stable either.

That is until yesterday I discovered that I could watch "King Kong" at 8 pm; but it was good for about 2 hours and then signal drops reappeared around 10:30 pm.
Before power increase my digital HDTV would show 10% of signal when it could find channel 7 and my DTV converter box would show about 30%.
Now HDTV gives 20% and converter box around 40%.

So, if anything, I'd wish increase in power was permanent and even a bit higher, say in the range 60-100% of previous analog channel power.

Thanks again!

Robert, Thanks a lot for doing this. My respect for Channel 7 grew tremendously.
It is puzzling, because before DTV switch among analog channels 7 and especially 9 were the least noisy channels (among 4 - 66) in Manassas VA, especially 9. So, I presumed that digital channels are quite robust against noise. To my surprise they completely disappeared after the switch. I have rooftop antenna with about 36 db amplifier tuned to the max amplification.
Sometimes I could receive them with sound and/or video freezes very late at night. More often I could watch channel 2 (than 7), but it is not stable either.

That is until yesterday I discovered that I could watch "King Kong" at 8 pm; but it was good for about 2 hours and then signal drops reappeared around 10:30 pm.
Before power increase my digital HDTV would show 10% of signal when it could find channel 7 and my DTV converter box would show about 30%.
Now HDTV gives 20% and converter box around 40%.

So, if anything, I'd wish increase in power was permanent and even a bit higher, say in the range 60-100% of previous analog channel power.

Thanks again!

What type/brand of amplifier are you using? I have found that some of the noisier high gain amplifiers actually do more harm than good (to a digital signal). Have you tried removing the amp? Also, if your amp has an FM trap, is it on or off?

Has anyone else noticed any improvement for WMAR-DT2 (RF-38) recently? Does anyone who monitors the FCC database or anyone else for that matter know of any facilities changes for WMAR-DT?
Since June 12, WMAR-DT 2 (RF 38) has been licensed to operate at 1000 kW which is the maximum power allowed for digital UHF. The station can not increase power. The improvement might have been due to atmospheric conditions, a local change in the propagation path for WMAR-DT, or a change in a interfering station on RF 38 or 39.

Thanks for the early feedback. Please keep it coming.
Rock solid here in Arnold, a few miles east of Annapolis. Nice work! I barely get WUSA, and only on 1 or 2 receivers.
2 Winegard HD1080s at 90 degree angles (Baltimore & DC), combined with a basic 2-way splitter, CM7778, then split 4 ways. Perfectly stable on an inexpensive Sylvania 19" TV/monitor, older Sony KDS50 XBR1, a Coby tuner, and TiVo HD.

. . . . .Manassas VA. . . . . I have rooftop antenna with about 36 db amplifier tuned to the max amplification.!!!!!!OUCH!!!!!!

You shouldn't be needing any amplifier in Manassas except for maybe channel 50 or 22. Channel 30, broadcasting from just south of Manassas is most certainly overloading your amplifier. A good rooftop antenna with a low gain pre-amp (12 db), or a quality distribution amp should provide excellent reception for you. Channel 7 & 9 have always had a very robust, easy to recieve signal in Manassas.

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but not to AVS. I recently moved to the area and am attempting to setup my antenna for my media center pc. Antennaweb.org shows that the major 4 networks (and others) are all within 4 degrees of each other. I'm in Fairfax, just outside the beltway. Of those 4, I get nothing from 7 and too many breakups for 9 to make it watchable. From what I have read, 7 is having issues but I haven't heard anything about 9. I have a CM 4228. Its not necessarily rated for VHF and from the info on antennaweb.org, 7 and 9 are the only two not in the UHF band. I'm not running any sort of filters, traps or amplification, and my antenna is propped up pointing towards the towers in my attic.

With that, a couple of questions. One, is this distinctively lower signal from 7 and 9 what others are seeing? Two, is the data at antennaweb.org up to date and accurate; i.e post-transition channel assignments, etc.? And, three, being as 7 and 9 are broadcasting in the VHF range, would it be better to get an antenna that would handle the VHF signals better, and are there other CM 4228 owners out with similar results?

Thanks for the info.

[scratch that question 2, just saw the first post on the thread]

(and others)I'm in Fairfax, just outside the beltway. Of those 4, I get nothing from 7 and too many breakups for 9 to make it watchable. From what I have read, 7 is having issues but I haven't heard anything about 9. I have a CM 4228.
Thanks for the info.I would first try an FM trap on your present antenna. You've got a tremendous amount of strong FM in Merrifield & Falls Church which can be a deal breaker for VHF reception. If that doesn't help, you will need a real channel 7-69 antenna which should yield rock solid reception of all DC stations. (You'll still need the FM trap no matter what you use).

I've tried the 4228 here and it was a poor performer for me. There is too much signal reflection in urban areas for this type of antenna from my experience, especially if mounted inside.

Since June 12, WMAR-DT 2 (RF 38) has been licensed to operate at 1000 kW which is the maximum power allowed for digital UHF. The station can not increase power. The improvement might have been due to atmospheric conditions, a local change in the propagation path for WMAR-DT, or a change in a interfering station on RF 38 or 39.

I understand what you are saying. WJZ-DT13 (RF-38) never exceeded a 92 reading for me when it used 38 and that was for many months. Right now, WMAR shows no signs of dropping down from its 100 reading. Very strange. Do you notice anything different about WMAR where you live, afiggatt?

They probably redid the transmitter calibrations which would have improved the signal/noise ratio coming out of the transmitter.

- Trip

Do you notice anything different about WMAR where you live,No noticable change here in Arlington. It's still the weakest UHF from Baltimore except for WUTB-24.

Hey guys/gals .... if I wanted to split a cable-level signal 10 ways, which do you think is the better option:

1) Run into 6-way splitter, then branch off to a 4-way drop-amp

2) Run into a 2-way splitter, then branch off to a 6-way splitter and a 4-way splitter

There's plenty of signal to go around, and both seem to work about the same (and both are apparently sufficient), but I'm wondering what you think is the "better" way of doing this. Basically, I have a 6-way that drives the house wiring and a 4-way to drive my HDHomeRun tuners. I would say that the HDHomeRuns are more important, since they are used a LOT more than the TV's internal tuners.

I know, not specifically related to Balto/DC HDTV, but I trust you guys/gals. I can make it on topic .... WJLA still looks great from here in Elkridge tonight over-the-air.

It depends on where the splits occur. For example, if the purpose is to feed two stories of your home, then split 1X2 with one half going to the lower floors and the other going upper. Then sub split only to the devices you have on that particular floor. Say you have four receivers or cable boxes on the upper floor, take your upstairs feed and only use a 1x4 splitter with all four outputs terminated. Same with downstairs. Just remember, only buy the number of splits you need because each split reduces signal level by around 3dB (50%). If you have any open ports for whatever reason, terminate the open ports with 75 ohm termination resistors or the entire system balance and bandwidth will be compromised.

Amplify only if you determine the signal level is too low for reliable reception. Don't assume you will need amplification, because many amplifiers will cause more problems than they fix. Install amplification before a large split only to make up for loss from previous splits or long cable runs. Make sure the amplifier you choose has bandwidth of at least 1ghz, with no built in VHF-FM trap switch.

Remember to only use passive splitters rated at 2gHz or more and only use high quality RG6 cable. Stay away from Radio Shack coax, as the shield is quite poor.

Can ATSC-M/H A/153 signals be received with a typical CECB? If not, what would be the best way to watch mobile signals on a "regular living room tv"? Thanks!

To the first question, no, and to the second, no device currently exists for that purpose.

- Trip

Can ATSC-M/H A/153 signals be received with a typical CECB? If not, what would be the best way to watch mobile signals on a "regular living room tv"? Thanks!


No.

Watch the regular HD/SD stream in your living room and the mobile stream on your hand-held/portable device while on the go. It doesn't make a bit of sense to do otherwise.

It depends on where the splits occur. For example, if the purpose is to feed two stories of your home, then split 1X2 with one half going to the lower floors and the other going upper. Then sub split only to the devices you have on that particular floor. Say you have four receivers or cable boxes on the upper floor, take your upstairs feed and only use a 1x4 splitter with all four outputs terminated. Same with downstairs. Just remember, only buy the number of splits you need because each split reduces signal level by around 3dB (50%). If you have any open ports for whatever reason, terminate the open ports with 75 ohm termination resistors or the entire system balance and bandwidth will be compromised.

Amplify only if you determine the signal level is too low for reliable reception. Don't assume you will need amplification, because many amplifiers will cause more problems than they fix. Install amplification before a large split only to make up for loss from previous splits or long cable runs. Make sure the amplifier you choose has bandwidth of at least 1ghz, with no built in VHF-FM trap switch.

Remember to only use passive splitters rated at 2gHz or more and only use high quality RG6 cable. Stay away from Radio Shack coax, as the shield is quite poor.

Wow, thank you Kelly! Much appreciated advice :) Since Sunday night, I've been running with the 6-way split to the 4-way distribution amp (CM3044) to drive the 4 HDHomeRun tuners and so far I've seen nothing but 100% signal and S/N ratio across the board on all 10 tuners.

Quick question, though ... why 2GHz splitters? I was under the impression that the 5MHz-1GHz are actually the better choice for cable/OTA.

No.

Watch the regular HD/SD stream in your living room and the mobile stream on your hand-held/portable device while on the go. It doesn't make a bit of sense to do otherwise.
It does if the mobile stream has non-duplicated content.

I haven't followed this issue at all, so I have no idea what the regs are, but I was under the impression that mobile stream content would not necessarily duplicate standard HD/SD streams. Is this not correct?

There's no requirement, but I believe at the moment there is no unique mobile content to view. If there is, I've seen nothing to suggest it.

- Trip

If that doesn't help, you will need a real channel 7-69 antenna which should yield rock solid reception of all DC stations. (You'll still need the FM trap no matter what you use).
Is there a particular antenna people have had good success with? Where is a good place to buy stuff like this in and around the Fairfax area?

Wow, thank you Kelly! Much appreciated advice :)

Quick question, though ... why 2GHz splitters? I was under the impression that the 5MHz-1GHz are actually the better choice for cable/OTA.

It's a simple answer really.. Pretty much all the passive splitters available, even with with specs out to 2gHz., are not flat in response to 2gHz. Most splitters start dropping 3dB or more in frequency response around 450-500mHz below the published upper frequency. So a 1gHz splitter is really only flat (sort of) to 450mHz, and a 2gHz splitter is only flat out to 1.4Ghz. Many of the OTA and HD cable channels are running in the 500-700mHz range. Given channels are each 6mHz in bandwidth for OTA, and the data on cable runs even higher, reliable signals depend on good, broad bandwidth. In the world of HD, bandwidth is everything.

We encourage all to conduct their own tests and to share your results on this page. Your work will be instrumental in determining whether the FCC should approve power increases for high-band VHF stations.

- Robert

So far, the extra power is just enough to push reception reliability to 90%. I haven't had the chance to check mid-days. 9 is right at detection in the evenings.

Is there a particular antenna people have had good success with? Where is a good place to buy stuff like this in and around the Fairfax area?I don't know of any local stores that carry FM traps. I usually order from Solid Signal, or Summit Source. The Pico Macom "HLSJ" makes a great FM trap at a low cost. You can also google "FM TRAP", & find a few online vendors that still have the old Radio Shack traps available at a reasonable price.

Either the Winegard HD7694P, or Antennacraft HBU-22 would be a good channel 7-69 antenna for your location.

anybody know if comcast broadcasts wusa 9 in hd in anne arundel county? I know we have the sd version with the box. if they don't have the hd version thru a box can we get it thru a unencrypted qam channel?

anybody know if comcast broadcasts wusa 9 in hd in anne arundel county? I know we have the sd version with the box. if they don't have the hd version thru a box can we get it thru a unencrypted qam channel?

It doesn't look they do.

Go here: https://www.comcast.com/Localization/Localize.ashx?Referer=%2fCustomers%2fclu%2fChannelLineup.ash x%3farea%3d0 and type in your street address/zip code to make sure. I see WUSA, but not with any "HD" qualification like there is on the Baltimore channels.

Since you get the SD version, why not just plug the coax into the TV directly and see what works and what doesn't?

For what it's worth, FiOS does WUSA 9 HD ClearQAM in Howard/AA and the bitrate is slightly better than it is OTA. For the best picture on network stuff, you should stick with WJZ, in my opinion.

anybody know if comcast broadcasts wusa 9 in hd in anne arundel county?

No. Only the Baltimore channels, WTTG, and WETA.

According to customer service, DTAs from Comcast will be available in Baltimore City at the beginning of October.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. Can an apartment building contract with only Comcast and ban all others, including satellite? I thought that was illegal.

Thanks.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. Can an apartment building contract with only Comcast and ban all others, including satellite? I thought that was illegal.

Thanks.

Sure, its technically their building so they can have whatever requirements for cable or utilities they please. Chances are they already have a Comcast POP in the basement, so to add other providers installing their gear could potentially create a mess and complexity. Some won't let you bolt dishes to their structure because aesthetics nor would they want holes drilled in the walls.

Here is the Washington Capitals 2009-10 TV schedule for CSN and national networks:

http://capitals.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm

Here is the Washington Capitals 2009-10 TV schedule for CSN and national networks:

http://capitals.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm

Thanks for posting that. The only thing that upsets me about being able to see all the games is that nearly 1/4th of them are not in HD. If CSN can put out CSN+, why can't it do CSN+HD???

On a side note... does anyone here think it is ever possible that we'll get Baltimore channels in NOVA on fios?? Would be great for football season and I used to be able to pick up a very snowy analog wayyyy back in the day.

Please don't say Baltimore is out of market because FIOS does provide us with out of market broadcasting (YES - the NY Yankeeeees network which I find extremely annoying).

No, because Baltimore is out of market. (Had to say it.) YES is not an over-the-air channel and thus is not governed by the same rules.

- Trip

I'm in Capitol Hill and just want to get the big 4 networks in HD OTA. Anyone have any specific recommendations for an antenna? I live in a townhouse and don't have access to the roof to mount anything. I'm not worried about picking anything up from Baltimore or anything, just the local networks. Thanks.

The reason I want to watch the mobile signal in my living room is that I have to adjust my rabbit ears meticulously for each channel, and I was hoping the more resilient mobile signal might eliminate the need to adjust so much.

Sure, its technically their building so they can have whatever requirements for cable or utilities they please. Chances are they already have a Comcast POP in the basement, so to add other providers installing their gear could potentially create a mess and complexity. Some won't let you bolt dishes to their structure because aesthetics nor would they want holes drilled in the walls.

I could be wrong, but I believe there are laws in some jurisdictions that prevent an apartment building from awarding exclusivity to one cable provider or another. I know that my building here in D.C. had an exclusive deal with RCN for a long time, but Comcast suddenly became available here a few years ago. And I was led to believe that it was a result of some law or regulatory change. I'm not sure if this is true, though.

Volume of ch 7 WJLA

Anyone else having volume issues with ch 7. The last for times I have watched something on ch 7 the volume hase been twice as loud as other stations?

I am getting it over Directv.

I could be wrong, but I believe there are laws in some jurisdictions that prevent an apartment building from awarding exclusivity to one cable provider or another. I know that my building here in D.C. had an exclusive deal with RCN for a long time, but Comcast suddenly became available here a few years ago. And I was led to believe that it was a result of some law or regulatory change. I'm not sure if this is true, though.

You are correct, but there are loopholes: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a 2007 Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") order prohibiting the owner's of apartment buildings, condominiums and other multi-unit residential properties from entering into exclusive contracts for providing cable T.V. services. The FCC relied upon Section 628(b) of the Communications Act. The FCC's position is that to restrict a multi-unit residential project's access to only one cable provider forecloses the expansion of fiber and phone, video and internet bundling services; thereby, denying residences the benefits of increased competition, lower prices and improved content and services.

That being said, if the building owner doesn't have a exclusive written agreement with a cable provider, then it's entirely up to the discretion of the building owner or manager as to whether a competing provider has access to their property.

This rule doesn't apply to satellite antenna installations, because of the required attachment of a dish to the structure.

On a side note... does anyone here think it is ever possible that we'll get Baltimore channels in NOVA on fios?? Would be great for football season and I used to be able to pick up a very snowy analog wayyyy back in the day. Please don't say Baltimore is out of market because FIOS does provide us with out of market broadcasting (YES - the NY Yankeeeees network which I find extremely annoying).

Verizon FiOS will NOT provide the Washington channels to Baltimore and will NOT provide Baltimore channels to Washington. The local broadcasters would make a huge stink about additional network outlets invading their territory. The reason is simple. It's all about advertising revenues. Baltimore and Washington are separate markets. I'm sure that WRC-DT4 does not appreciate FiOS carrying Hagerstown's NBC WHAG-DT25 into the Washington area.

The only market crossover is the FiOS service to Howard and Anne Arundel counties. They get all of the Baltimore channels (2,11,13,22,24,45,and 54) plus all of the Washington channels except for 20, 30, and 50.

Your only option is to hook up an external VHF/UHF antenna if you want Baltimore. That's exactly what I did.

Verizon FiOS will NOT provide the Washington channels to Baltimore and will NOT provide Baltimore channels to Washington. The local broadcasters would make a huge stink about additional network outlets invading their territory. The reason is simple. It's all about advertising revenues. Baltimore and Washington are separate markets. I'm sure that WRC-DT4 does not appreciate FiOS carrying Hagerstown's NBC WHAG-DT25 into the Washington area.

The only market crossover is the FiOS service to Howard and Anne Arundel counties. They get all of the Baltimore channels (2,11,13,22,24,45,and 54) plus all of the Washington channels except for 20, 30, and 50.

Your only option is to hook up an external VHF/UHF antenna if you want Baltimore. That's exactly what I did.

I don't watch WRC-DT4 since FIOS put WHAG-D25 on. The Hagerstown station has a better picture since it has a higher bitrate than the DC station.

I hope there are no plans to remove it. At least I hope they give us ample warning if they do.

I don't watch WRC-DT4 since FIOS put WHAG-D25 on. The Hagerstown station has a better picture since it has a higher bitrate than the DC station. I hope there are no plans to remove it. At least I hope they give us ample warning if they do.

Hagerstown is tied into the Washington DMA. I cannot foresee any plans to remove WHAG-DT from the Washington area channel lineup.

Do you measure bitrate? What kind of equipment is needed?

Verizon FiOS will NOT provide the Washington channels to Baltimore and will NOT provide Baltimore channels to Washington. The local broadcasters would make a huge stink about additional network outlets invading their territory. The reason is simple. It's all about advertising revenues. Baltimore and Washington are separate markets. I'm sure that WRC-DT4 does not appreciate FiOS carrying Hagerstown's NBC WHAG-DT25 into the Washington area.

The only market crossover is the FiOS service to Howard and Anne Arundel counties. They get all of the Baltimore channels (2,11,13,22,24,45,and 54) plus all of the Washington channels except for 20, 30, and 50.

Your only option is to hook up an external VHF/UHF antenna if you want Baltimore. That's exactly what I did.

RE: antenna... Been there, tried that ;) Too far away and I'd need an zoning permit to put up a tower tall enough to get the signals.

The only market crossover is the FiOS service to Howard and Anne Arundel counties. They get all of the Baltimore channels (2,11,13,22,24,45,and 54) plus all of the Washington channels except for 20, 30, and 50.

And that's only because Howard and Anne Arundel count as part of both markets for certain ratings. Otherwise, we would also have only one or the other available to us. There are only a very small number of places in the U.S. that fall into multiple markets, and with the prevalence of cable over broadcast, I'm surprised they haven't just pushed Howard and AA exclusively into Baltimore. The radio side is much trickier than the TV side here.

If anyone wants to know, the full compliment of full-power D.C. channels that you can get typically get OTA from Howard/AA but aren't on FiOS are ... WDCA 20, WMPT 22 **, WNVC/T 30, WDCW 50 and WPXW 66. WFDC 14 technically exists, but only as a converted analog channel. If/when WFDC goes beyond 480i I doubt FiOS will pick that up.

** WMPB 67 from Baltimore is exactly the same as WMPT 22, and that's what FiOS in H/AA provides. (I actually cloned 67.x on my HTPC to 22.x so the wife doesn't get annoyed - lol)

Do you measure bitrate? What kind of equipment is needed?

The general rule of thumb is that the less sub-channels there are, the higher the primary channel's bitrate will be. (All ATSC channels have an identical overall bitrate - 19.39Mb/s or something like that). Some things, like MobileDTV, or how they have their stuff configured, can affect that, but in general you should get the best picture from the channels that have the least number of subchannels. No special equipment required!

You can, however, measure this data with a computer-based tuner and a tool called "TSReader". The tool examines the ATSC stream in detail and provides information about each of the substreams, including the current bitrates. As I learned from the folks out here, it's easy to be fooled by these numbers sometimes, though. Made that mistake at least twice :)

The computer-based "HDHomeRun" tuners can also provide that information, since they only send the relevant streams to the PC over ethernet. It reports the total data rate of both the video and audio streams as a single number.

There are probably other ways, but the PC-based tools are likely to be the easiest. TSReader has a "Lite" version that's even free, but it doesn't support every single PC tuner on the market.

I don't watch WRC-DT4 since FIOS put WHAG-D25 on. The Hagerstown station has a better picture since it has a higher bitrate than the DC station.

I hope there are no plans to remove it. At least I hope they give us ample warning if they do.Honestly, I don't see much, if any, difference between WHAG and WRC.

But I really wish they'd give us an alternate ABC station. The PQ on WJLA is just really, really awful. Sports are unwatchable. Their news programs (all of which are now in HD) look like widescreen SD. Jeopardy is a blurry mess. Scripted programming is only barely tolerable. It is bar none the worst looking HD channel to which I have access.

Honestly, I don't see much, if any, difference between WHAG and WRC.

But I really wish they'd give us an alternate ABC station. The PQ on WJLA is just really, really awful. Sports are unwatchable. Their news programs (all of which are now in HD) look like widescreen SD. Jeopardy is a blurry mess. Scripted programming is only barely tolerable. It is bar none the worst looking HD channel to which I have access.
You should see the HD on WPXW 66 (on DT 34). Thankfully they don't carry anything of interest to me.

But I agree, now that I get WJLA reliably, it is easy to say that I prefer WMAR's picture quality to WJLA's. I do not get WHAG so I cannot compare WHAG to WRC directly.

Honestly, I don't see much, if any, difference between WHAG and WRC.For the most part they do look the same. Occasionally during fast motion or complex scenes, I do see more compression artifacts on WRC.


But I really wish they'd give us an alternate ABC station. The PQ on WJLA is just really, really awful.Most of that is because of the ABC network, not WJLA. While I can see a noticable difference on Richmonds sub-channel free ABC affiliate, the PQ is never quite as sharp as FOX, NBC, or CBS (except for Good Morning America)

And that's only because Howard and Anne Arundel count as part of both markets for certain ratings. Otherwise, we would also have only one or the other available to us. There are only a very small number of places in the U.S. that fall into multiple markets, and with the prevalence of cable over broadcast, I'm surprised they haven't just pushed Howard and AA exclusively into Baltimore. The radio side is much trickier than the TV side here.
The lucky good folks in Mercer County, NJ fall into a multiple market situation, too, for FiOS. They receive the network outlets from both Philly and NYC in HD. They are in the only county in all of NJ that gets both markets. I do notice however that Mercer does not get all of the Philly market's channels nor do they get all of the NYC market's channels. There are certain channels that are exclusive only to the Philly and NYC markets.

http://www22.verizon.com/NROneRetail/NR/rdonlyres/24686306-377F-4C3D-A1D5-2BFC03B24769/0/MERCERCoNJ_CLU_081909.PDF

For the most part they do look the same. Occasionally during fast motion or complex scenes, I do see more compression artifacts on WRC.



The compression artifacts make a big difference. I run my broadcast sources through an Algolith Flea to minimize them, but I can still see more from the DC station than from the Hagerstown station.

Robert,
I had a solid signal back in June, 99% on My DISH 612/722 boxes. Today I can't get a lock on your signal at all. Still getting WUSA right around 99%.

Well I've got WJLA back at 100%. Not sure what happened last week.

Is there a particular antenna people have had good success with? Where is a good place to buy stuff like this in and around the Fairfax area?


So here's an interesting story. After the digital transition in June, channels 7 and 9 moved back to their VHF frequencies, so the antenna we were using from our house in Fairfax no longer received them (it was a Radio Shack DA-5200).

Just last week I finally got around to ordering an AntennaCraft Y5-7-13, which is a VHF antenna. I installed it the attic of our townhome, and out of curiosity I ran a channel scan with only that antenna connected.

So hurray, there's our old friends 7 and 9 again, but what really suprised me was that this "VHF antenna" also reliably pulls in channels 4,5 20, 26, 30, 32, and 66! The only one it can't get is CW 50!

I have no idea how this stuff works, and how some bundle of poles in my attic that weighs almost nothing can magically make stuff appear on the TV. Anyway, I ordered it from Solid Signal, along with a couple of connector-type thingies. It arrived within a few days.

I found this ironic and thought the story might be appreciated ....

I got into the whole OTA/DIY thing for one reason back in January '08. That was to get WMPT reliably. Our (now known to be too) massive roof aerial was getting all the local HDs perfectly well, except for PBS, which happened to be my wife's favorite channel. Then, when I pointed something in that general direction and picked up most of the DC locals, well, I was hooked :)

Almost 2 years later, I was tearing down "the lab" up in the attic and cleaning everything up. Since FiOS doesn't have WMPT (but does have WMPB), I figured "why not" and left one mast in place. Dug out my original SR15 Yagi, pointed it to 162 degrees, Join-Tennaed it into the surviving 42XG/7777 system (for 20, 50 and 66). Crap reception :) Oh well, right?

On a hunch, I went up there one final time with the C1 that has been running Baltimore UHF for me pretty much perfectly since the spring. Replaced the SR15, pointed it somewhere close to 162 degrees. Buttoned up the attic.

Lo and behold ... after almost 2 years of work ... WMPT 22 (42) is showing 100% across the board. Been scanning for 2 hours, not a single error. Not a single blip below 100% :cool: To be honest, I've never considered WMPT a challenge, it's extremely powerful from my location, but then again it was also never really perfect because I was always trying to do something else at the same time.

My wife will love this when she gets back from Germany. I finally did what I told her I was going to all along :o

Hey - for what it's worth, the Antennas Direct C1 is a brilliant little antenna. Ever since I installed it, I honestly have had close to zero issues with the Baltimore UHF channels. I'm 10.6 miles out from the main towers, and 5.x from WUTB. It has a really wide radiation pattern and fairly low gain, which can be ideal for suburban locations like mine. The gain is so low, it doesn't seem to pick up much in the way of multipath (a real problem 5 or so miles from BWI and 400 yards from I-95), and you can amplify the snot out of it. Proved it's worth once again for me this evening for the strong signal of WMPT. (The C4, on the other hand, is in my humble opinion a piece of crap -- anybody want one? lol)

I searched and found a couple of prior posts about problems with WHUT-DT, but thought I would raise the question again and post a video that shows what is happening with my Dish 622 and 722 receivers. While live OTA doesn't seem to be affected as much, any Dish DVR recording of WHUT is practically unwatchable!! Not only are there periodic dropouts, but the DVR's trick buttons (which rely on reliable timecode) are completely useless! Help. How can we get this fixed?! (BTW, I'm getting 100% signal strength - that's not the problem)

Sample video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D24HG3v0VOI

problems with WHUT-DT. . . . live OTA doesn't seem to be affected as muchDo you ever see this problem with live OTA?

Do you ever see this problem with live OTA?

Essentially, no, at least nothing nearly as severe. But I need to do some more observing and testing. Keep in mind that the term 'live' when watching on a DVR is questionable, since you are really watching a slightly delayed, buffered stream.