Mobile, AL / Panama City, FL - HDTV - Page 123

I am out in West Mobile, near the airport and on an outside antenna, OTA. I get 27 or so channels but recently lost FOX10 WALA. Anyone else having problems with 10 or is it something here? VHF issue? I tried rescanning and aiming the antenna. Scan doesn't even list 10 now.

I am not new to this and have been OTA since before the digital switchover here and in other areas.

10 and 44 have always been weakest. 10 went away and 44 is as good as usual or better.

Mine's where it's always been on the TiVo HD, 55-65. It's bordeline but I generally record without issue. In Theodore near McDonald rd.

How odd. Mine's actually reading higher than normal. I usually get 50-60% and today it's 60-70%. WALA is usually my weakest, along with WEIQ. The rest are pegged at 100%. This is between Foley and Summerdale.

The antenna is somewhat unusual in that it's the FM whip from an old Chrysler, wedged into a hole in the back of my TV, and connected via an alligator clip to a short length of coax. Positioned vertically it has given me better performance than the amplified junk RCA set top unit I'd used prior to moving here. No dropouts, even on WALA or WEIQ. WKRG is the exception. 5.1 drops out regularly OTA no matter what antenna I use. 5.2 and 5.3 don't.

Mine is running a little higher than I usually see, about 65.

ElwayLite,

What type of antenna setup are you using for OTA? Channel 10 reception was better in the past, but the last few months has been spotty for me. I live in Theodore near the Dog Track.

Here is the post with my data. Im getting fox OK on the TiVo, but no the Directv Tuner.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=3452

Looks like is very hard to pick up WMPV TV-21. When I moved my TV to another spot to place in my room. I can't get WMPV at all when I scan all these channels. At least WHBR was there. I'm afraid it's gonna be the same thing as WDPM-TV...

I just got an HR24-500 dvr, and noticed that this channel always seems to be in a stretched format for SD programming on channel 35. With my older HR20-700, I got the same result, but if I switched to 35-1, the OTA channel, I got the SD program in the native 4:3 format with sidebars, and I acually prefer it that way. I don't watch GFX enough to buy the AM-1, but I wonder how Directv wound up squeezing it to fill the screen, when it is apparantly not broadcast in that aspect.

I have never noticed that phenomenon on other directv channels.

Not to sound like you dont know what you are doing, but you do have it in right aspect mode, correct?

I think have it set to show the signal in its native format, with black borders, if the original is not in widescreen. I do not care for a stretched picture. Since I know you have the HR24-500, I infer that you must be receiving with borders and not stretched. I will certainly go back and double- check.

I cant confirm on 35.1, unfortunately, just throwing out an idea. I watch everything on Native and Original Format.

Just press the FORMAT key on your remote (upper left corner) to cycle through the different screen styles. If your TV is set to widescreen, then all styles except pillar bar will fill the screen if you are viewing an SD channel. You can also change the color of the pillars from the preset gray to black by pressing Menu>Parental Fav's & Setup>System Setup>HDTV>Video>Bar Color

And I have set to show the native format. On other channels, when an sd picture is shown, it is pillar- boxed. Not on this channel. Must be the way directv has it set up, or the way the station feeds it to the satellite.

When a station sends out a program that is SD over their HD channel, they add the black pillars. So your widescreen TV shows the 4:3 picture in 16:9 with black pillars. When a channel is not an HD channel, it comes to you in 4:3 and it is up to you how that channel is displayed. On DIRECTV, the "Native" setting simply means that the receiver will output that channel in the resolution in which it arrived. So SD channels are 4:3 480i and HD channels are 16:9 and in 720p, 1080i, or rarely 1080p. Since your display is 16:9, your TV and DIRECTV receiver must be told how to handle a 4:3 image. If your TV is set to Widescreen or Wide, 16:9 images will fit the screen and 4:3 will not. SD channels don't have the pillars pre-attached, so the TV or DIRECTV receiver must do something about that. The Original, Stretch, and Crop settings on your DIRECTV receiver will make the 4:3 picture fill your 16:9 screen in one way or another (Original will not adjust it, and your TV will stretch it, so think Original=Stretch). Only the Pillar Box setting on your DIRECTV receiver will add the necessary pillar bars to the 4:3 SD image to make it 16:9 and therefore fill the screen with the correct image ratio plus the pillar bars. To do this, push the FORMAT key on your DIRECTV remote repeatedly until it is displaying "Native resolution + Pillar Box"

See my earlier post on how to change the DIRECTV applied pillars from the default gray to black.

What is the current status of W50CF?

This turned out to be a VHF issue. I took down the antenna and swapped the lead over to the Vhf side. I don't get as many channels (14?) but I have FOX10 for the Packers-Bears game. I'll try to figure out why and post again.

I think the VHF signal is supposed to reflect to the UHF side and that is where the lead connects, normally. I have an old broken down antenna that has a physical connection between the two sides. Maybe this one is supposed to but doesn't. Later.

That's a good question. Last I heard, it stayed on the air with an analog signal after WFGX started broadcasting from Baldwin County, causing some reception issues in Mobile.

They have an application pending since 2009 to move to channel 6 as a result of this conflict, but the FCC has apparently taken no action or issues any temporary authority rulings.

The application would see them out of Mobile and side-mounted on the WFGX broadcast tower in Baldwin County, with a protected contour that would just barely reach Mobile and Pensacola, but greatly expand coverage nonetheless.

Although pure speculation on my part, there is only one reason a LPTV station goes to RF channel 6 analog: to become an 87.7 FM radio station. Maybe that's a long term plan for the owners. They're quite common; LA, Chicago, Memphis and several other towns have LPTV channel 6 stations acting as radio broadcasters and some are doing well.

Thank you for the response. Who is currently responsible for the operation of the station? The last time I saw the station's programming, the Word of Life Community Church was operating the station.

Update #1: After contacting the church, I learned they still operate the station and I was told it's still on the air.

Update #2: I called the church again after 10:00 AM when someone involved with the station would be available. I told the person I cannot see the station's programming from midtown Mobile and I was told the station is in the process of transitioning to cable. I was given a World Wide Web address for live video of the station's programming.

http://www.faithvideoondemand.com/wol.htm

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I'm pretty sure that a full power station trumps low power broadcasting and they should have signed off when WFGX signed on from their new site.

The question is, why the FCC hasn't deleted the license or processed the application.

I have full reception again. Scan identifies 28 digital channels and all of them that I checked have a strong signal. I removed the signal amplifier by the TV and replaced it with a pre-amp up on the antenna mast. I moved the signal lead back to the UHF side of the antenna where it belongs. Best reception yet, it was really a procrastination issue. If you want a pre-amp, don't put it off. It makes all of the sense in the world to amplify a clean signal before attenuation takes its toll.

What are you guys in WeMo using for and outdoor antenna? I'm off of snow and cottage hill have no luck with indoor units. I was looking into amplified outdoor units.

Chuck

Did anyone else have an issue with WALA showing only the SD feed of FOX on the HD channel Sunday night? I have DirecTV. Methinks the FOX "splicer" was messed up at the station.

Yup, it was messed up here, too. We're on Riviera Cable (ptooey!) The Fox 10 logo was in HD, but the actual network programming was not.

Thanks for the heads up. Now I won't be so mad when I go to watch the Sunday shows tomorrow evening on the DVR.

WEAR is now running The Country Network on 3.2.
WFGX is no longer carrying it on 35.3.

That sucks. I guess the PQ on ABC will take a hit, now. Frankly I'm surprised WFNA and WJTC don't have a bunch of subchannels; they're the only ones left running HD full bandwidth.

Hasn't WEAR had an SD simulcast on 3-2 anyway?

- Trip

Not since November 2009.

Hm. Correct you are.

That being said, I have data from April 2010 and the HD was fixed at 14 Mbps, so I sincerely doubt there will be any detrimental impact on the HD quality since there was at least 4 Mbps being wasted on null packets on WEAR.

- Trip

Man!!! I just found this shocking when WFGX moved to WEAR-TV...

But... Looks like WFGX needs to put ThisTV 24/7 to 35.2. Because WFGX don't have some good shows currently... Why won't WFGX carry ION along with MyNetworkTV.

WHBR-TV now has a sub-channel for programming from the Christian Television Network International, according to the letters "CTNi" displayed on the screen after I noticed channel 33-2. There was no picture shortly after 6:00 AM today.


I would like to have access to ThisTV all day, too. Ion and MyNetwork would complement the syndicated programs, Jewelry Television programming, and paid programming on the main channel of WFGX-TV very well, since both Ion and MyNetworkTV rerun recent TV programs (available elsewhere on TV) every evening Monday through Friday and Ion has programs other than paid programming between 2:00 PM and 11:00 PM Monday through Friday.