Des Moines, IA - HDTV - Page 142

Have not noticed many signal problems with any of the OTA digital channels this year. No more dropouts on PBS or RTN, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune looking good, new channels added without major technical difficulty in 2011. The long road from analog to digital has led us to the point we had hoped for, I should think. Not that there isn't room for improvment, still want more power for 39 in Newton so it can cover the entire DSM metro area, and Cool TV needs audio upgrade to stereo.

Now back to ME-TV......they did a good job making it fun to watch with the promo's they do durring the commercial breaks. Like getting Ed Asner to say "meow"......and taking cuts out of shows and pasting them together......"You keep thinking about ME ".......You better think about that......and think about it hard.....lol. TV-land used to do that alot. Oh, and speaking of Ed Asner, hope they pick up the Lou Grant show someday, was a good show about the newspaper business, serious content, no laughtrack. Think Ed and CBS should kiss and makeup someday, they ought to give him Andy Rooney's old spot on 60 minutes.

Also was curious if they plan to show all the Columbo episodes on Sun nights. Noticed they have been showing the 2 hour episodes in no particular order, but there are many other episodes that have strange run times of an hour and a half, or less. Hope they can get around the scheduling problems to show those shorter episodes as well.

Really think "Combat" deserves a spot in the late morning/afternoon, rather than in the wee hours of the morning.

I think this is a really good point and we should sit back for a second and realize this.

We went through the biggest transition in the history of television, and there were bumps along the way, but we made it. Over-the-air television is certainly better as a result.

All three news organizations in Des Moines do HD newscasts and have now for eight months. All three news organizations in the Quad Cities are HD now too for the past three months. Cedar Rapids market still has only one channel broadcasting local news in HD -- KWWL, and they were the first in the state to do so. (WHO came second, but their HD broadcast is more complete -- KWWL still uses a lot of SD shots for remotes.)

We're even to the point now where FOX is broadcasting sports that are shot and composed with 16:9 in mind and are shown in a letterbox format for 4:3 viewers. The widescreen HD broadcast is considering first and foremost on FOX Sports broadcast, instead of pandering to 4:3 viewers where 16:9 viewer get mostly "useless" information in the wings.

It's been a tremendous transition and there have been many bumps -- but it's kinda weird to sit back and truly realize that the digital OTA transition, the HD transition, the 16:9 transition is well on its way. We've come so far.

I'm surprised the Quad Cities are ahead of Cedar Rapids with respect to HD news broadcasts. Cedar Rapids is a bigger market than Quad Cities, they should be farther along than that.........only one channel in HD ?

Not to mention KDSM can actually broadcast syndicated HD shows and commercials and, for the first time ever, can broadcast stereo sound now.

I honestly never thought we'd see the day.

Just got my antenna up and working at the new house. Or actually, just used the existing equipment and awful wiring that was already here. Earlier in the week I had everything dialed in and finally got channel 5 in the 40-50 range which is pretty decent. Channel 17 was in the mid seventies signal range all week, rock solid. Now I try to watch some football and it keeps dropping to less than 20 from 70 something. Is this pretty normal for Fox? Every other channel is running great at the moment, and of course the first time this week that I actually want to watch tv, it isn't working .

Tonight I am getting the strongest signals from 23, 19, and 17, all booming in the 80s for signal strength, can't get zip tonight out of 39, can usually get close to a threshold signal of 17% but nothing now on 39. The lower VHF channels are all there, 70's from channel 8 is the best one, followed by 5 at close to 60%, then 13 is hovering around the upper 40's and low 50%, followed by 11 which is usually the lowest, now at 30%. My setup is over 15 years old with elements breaking off and wires to the combiner corroding away, getting time for a new antenna next summer.

If you have separate VHF/UHF on the roof, check the wires from each one that go to your VHF/UHF signal combiner box. That might be the problem, especially if your 23 and 19 are weak then you might have a bad combiner.

jake the ssnake
Member

Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Iowa
Posts: 30
Just got my antenna up and working at the new house. Or actually, just used the existing equipment and awful wiring that was already here. Earlier in the week I had everything dialed in and finally got channel 5 in the 40-50 range which is pretty decent. Channel 17 was in the mid seventies signal range all week, rock solid. Now I try to watch some football and it keeps dropping to less than 20 from 70 something. Is this pretty normal for Fox? Every other channel is running great at the moment, and of course the first time this week that I actually want to watch tv, it isn't working .



Jake, I have always had great luck in DSM with OTA. What part of town are you in, and what is the awful wiring you used? For that matter, what is the antenna?

I'm new to this forum, so feel free to email with questions if that is possible.

I am now in IC/CR and know how much I took for granted DSMs wonderful broadcasters.

I'm a good ways north of DM, i think antennaweb puts me around 60 miles from the towers, iirc. I think it's a yagi style antenna. The wiring is just 2 wires into a coax adapter, and it's really old and brittle. The antenna is just laying on the rafters in my attic. There are many variables that could easily be fixed, but this is only temporary. It only seems to be an issue with Fox, and only during the day, so i was just wondering if anybody else was having issues.

Next spring I'll probably put a new antenna up where my satellite is and use that cable since I know it's good. That will give me a good mounting spot with a good run of cable plus actually being outside. I'm about 30 miles South of my old house that I got great reception at, so I dont think I'll have any problems. I just need to make it through the winter with my cobbled together setup :lol:

Anyone see this on kcci.com?

http://www.kcci.com/news/30005008/detail.html

As of this posting, they list 14 cable companies where they're still negotiating retrans rights. Mediacom is on that list. December 31 is the deadline.

Hopefully they'll work something out.

Perfect timing, I'm supposed to get Webster Calhoun Co-op Telephone installed his week. That would be a spiffy welcome package

Jake.

IF it aint broke, no need to fix it. A new antenna will not necessarily do anything yours does not. The lifespan of an indoor antenna is arguably infinite. A couple of things occur to me. The twin lead that comes from the two wingnuts on the antenna that converts to coax is called a balun- it converts the 300Ohm signal of the twin feed to the 75ohm feed of coax. Twin is fine, and a case could be made it is superior but your example where it becomes brittle and difficult to work with is common and one of the reasons coax is so popular. A balun could be purchased online for $5ish.

Often times there will be a 'Y' on the front (smaller) end, and make sure it is not pointing down. Slightly up is better than slightly down.

Antennaweb offered you an azimuth to point the antenna. Put a tv on channel 16 (17) and find the signal meter for that channel and align for that channel, and the rest should be fine. Look to see if there is a pair of 'yagi' that are not opened up all the way. Some of the CM and Winegard products have that set where the wingnut attaches. VERY important they are open.

Something to think about. Elevation is key in signal reception. If your dish mast is not substantially higher than where it lays on the rafters I would not expect substantial improvement to your reception. An outdoor installation should last about 10 years, but in your neck of the woods i think it gets pretty windy? If you are anywhere near Ft Dodge I know I have had to do a LOT of dish realignments just from straight winds up there. Damage on an outside antenna would be higher up there and if an indoor installation were possible if it were up to me.

Best luck!

Cedar Rapids' CBS affiliate (KGAN) is a Sinclair station. Enough said there.

KCRG is far and away the highest rated station and is locally owned by The Cedar Rapids Gazette so there's not a huge corporation backing them. It's also kind of like KCCI here in Des Moines where even without HD newscasts, they're still the ratings leader. KCCI was a distant third to HD here in DSM and it barely touched their ratings. HD doesn't seem to affect the general public's viewing habits for local news.

That's why KCRG has dragged their feet so much on the HD upgrade.

I personally *DID* change my viewing habits for news. When WHO was the first to HD, I started watching their newscast instead of KCCI, and I've had zero desire to switch back, even though KCCI finally started doing HD. I think WHO has far and away the best picture quality and they seemed to put the most work into their HD conversion and I respect that a lot.

Regarding the locals going to HD for newscasts, even though KCRG is a privately owned company, they have been putting the infrastructure in place for many months to start broadcasting news in HD. The last target date I heard about was sometime in January 2012.

From rumors I've heard, this is a full upgrade, not just a studio camera update. If it pans out, I think the ENG, studio and control room will be all updated to HD equipment.

I'm in the Urbandale area, and have Mediacom digital cable. We've been in this house for 6 months now. Here lately I've been noticed audio drop in the evenings. Usually a second or so. Last night had probably 8 - 10 seconds. I went and rearranged my splitter situation went from a 3-way to a 2-way followed by 3-way. This TV is coming off the 2-way now. But still noticed some drops

I got a new TV a few months ago and now run my audio through an optical audio cable to my surround sounds. I'm trying to decide if that is my problem or maybe my cable box

Any thoughts? Am I experiencing the woes of a taxed cable network?

Heads up! The pilot episode of The Jeffersons is scheduled to air on Antenna TV on Tuesday, April 24. As you may already know, that pilot aired as an episode of All in the Family, which is how it aired in syndication and continues on Antenna TV. According to a review of the Season 5 DVD set, Edith is the only character from AITF (aside from George and Louise) who appears in this episode.

There's some schedule shake-ups on MeTV. Gomer Pyle and Love, American Style are getting the ax in favor of The Honeymooners: The Lost Episodes weekdays and Sundays at 4am, and the Original 39 weeknights at 9:30pm. Cartoons on Saturday mornings include He-Man, She-Ra, Gumby and The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo. Plus several time changes.

http://metvnetwork.com/springChanges.php

Anyone else notice WOI's signal on DirecTV seems ultra compressed and choppy the last 6 months?

I am attempting to ditch directv to save money with antenna, however for some odd reason I cannot get channel 5.1 or 5.2 in Des Moines. I get all of the other major channels with an average reception of 85% or so. Does anyone have any answers for this? Also, does anyone know why 11.1 (PBS) has no sound over the antenna? 11.2 and 11.3 are fine, but for some reason 11.1 has no sound.

Thanks.

I did the same thing and had the same problem. Had to get a different antenna with a little more VHF coverage and a lot of turning. Now it comes in great. Have you checked antenna web.org?

Yeah, I checked it out. But I am pretty dumb when it comes to antennas. I don't get the lingo one bit. Do you use a directional outdoor antenna or indoor? I trying to figure out which outdoor antenna I need.

I just bought a Antennacraft omnidirectional and it works great for all channels except 5.1 or 5.2. I don't get it. Do you have sound on 11.1?

I did have a UHF only antenna in the attic but had to mount a uhf/vhf antenna on the roof to pull in abc. Never watched 11.1 so I don't know...can check tonite.

Where do you live approximately?

Here is what I found from PBS, I have a Panasonic so I am guessing that is the problem. Also, south of grand on the north side of Raccoon river. It may be the fact that I am on the south side of a hill and all of the stations are NE of me.

Response from PBS:

It could be one of two problems with the sound. The first, I call the 'Panasonic' problem. If you have a Panasonic set of a certain model, you could have this problem. We have never determined why, but suspect a software problem in the set. To fix it, push the 'audio' button on your remote while the channel is on. You might have to push it more than once. When the sound comes back, it should stay back permanently.

The other problem might be that you have the 'second audio program' (SAP) turned on for that channel. Turning it off also involves pushing the 'audio' button. The difference in the two problems is that, with the first, you never have any sound, but with the second, some programs will have sound (of some sort) but others will not.

Has Mediacom's new channel lineup in Des Moines, thats supposed to be effective today, gone live yet?

Yes it has.

http://mediacomtoday-lineup.com/line...ive_des_m.aspx

We've been noticing more of the HD channels this weekend at least. Have they cut the analogs yet? DVR #2 still records off those, and I haven't thought to check yet

I live in Altoona and am looking for an antenna that will pick up ABC ch 5.1, this seems to fall in the low-band VHF spectrum and I cant seem to find an antenna that will work for this. Any recommendations? I should add that this should be able to fit into an attic.

Thanks.

I have personally tried and liked the Winegard MS2002 Metrostar VHF/UHF Amplified Omnidirectional TV Antenna (MS-2002). Winegard is a company based in Iowa, too. My friend bought one based on my success with it in an attic up in Ames. I also set one up at my in-laws cabin in northern MN. The main reason I like them is that they have decent sensitivity and can pick up stations in different directions. You would not have too much trouble with a more traditional directional antenna if all you want are the Alleman stations, but this is my recommendation.

For those of you keeping track, Ames just switched on the new lineup on Mediacom. There are several new HD stations, but I think those of you using old analog equipment are now mostly out of luck. I have not checked to see what does come in on analog, but I wouldn't expect it is much other than very minimal basic programming.

I was looking at that, or at least the un-amplified version of it since A: i don't have power in my attic, its more of a small crawl space and B: I do have a powered amplifier in the basement that I got from Wal-Mart. I was also considering the HD7010/7015 since its less cost at only $39.99. I would have to put it together in my attic which would be kind of a pain but hopefully it will fit around joists, I dunno yet.

The unit uses a power injector-splitter, so no worries about power in the attic. You would just plug the power supply in where your current amp is and connect that cable to the power in port. Then one port is labeled to go to the antenna (which takes the DC to the antenna to power its internal amp) and the other goes out to your house (TV, splitter, whatever but I wouldn't run it through your walmart amp unless you needed to).

How would that work for how I currently have it setup?
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