Champaign, IL - HDTV - Page 162

Dishrich, you were right with your second to the last statement. In Springfield with Comcast I have an HDTV with (via a splitter) a direct connection from the wall Comcast outlet to my HDTV and a connection from the wall Comcast outlet to my Comcast digital receiver to a Panasonic VHS/DVD recorder and then to the Panasonic HDTV with a QAM tuner. Sometime after June 5 I noticed that I could not get any of the channels from 2 through 23 anymore with the direct wall connection to the HDTV except the HD channels such 3-1 (CBS), 12-1(PBS), 20-1(ABC), 55-1 (Fox), 78-1(WGN) and so on. When I went to channel 2 or 3, for example, there was a message on the screen to call Comcast. Now the screen is blank or has snow with no message. Obviously I can still get channels 2 through 23 with the Comcast digital receiver.

Will reprograming the channels for my TV allow me to get channels 2 through 23 from my direct wall outlet connection like I had previously?

Is there any chance of losing my HD channels from the direct wall connection?

Thanks for any advice.

Yes...you will be able to get (only) the digital versions of those channels, just like you could have before. You'll have to rescan the TV & then look around at all the unencrypted channels it finds to see where they are. They will NOT be on the nomal analog numbers (like 2, 3, 4, etc.) but will be on channels like 78.1, 110.2, etc. I haven't kept up on keeping a list for a long time, so you'll have to look around.

As I already explained in detail, yes.

Also, starting on 6/24, Comcast WILL start charging $2/month for any/all DTA's picked up after this date - even they are only your first 2. (or first 3 if you are a limited basic sub) This was just on my last bill that came last week. If you (already) have them, or get them now BEFORE 6/24, they will continue to be FREE.
So bottom line...if you think you might need more than 1 DTA, better get your get them NOW while they'll still have NO monthly charge!

This morning, I actually managed to tune in WBUI well enough to watch something. This is the first time I've ever gotten to watch THIS TV for any appreciable length. This was around 7:30 this morning. On a related note, can anyone explain to me why both WBUI and WRSP/WCCU carry Anderson, just at two different time slots? It's like they've never heard of DVR or something.

I've finally managed to tune in HD Radio, by the way. It's not terrible, you can definitely hear the switch and difference between analog and digital. The static drops out, and the sound opens up. Ignoring the change in static, it's pretty much the same as listening to an audio stream switch to a higher bitrate. Not revolutionary by itself, higher fidelity crap is still crap, the promise for me has always been multiplexing. It I didn't get to satisfactorily test. The only station I could get a lock on (94.5) had a "True Oldies" format on its HD2. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't make me go "For THAT, I'll listen to radio". I know the other Saga stations have HD2 multiplexes (as does WILL, with the WILL AM programs), what formats do they carry?

Well NOT everyone has a DVR you know...
Actually, many (usually larger) markets have deals on some syndicated shows, where another station in the SAME market, can buy "2nd run rights" for shows - & the stations are NOT always run/owned by the same company.

eg: In Chicago, 1st run Dr. Phil is on WBBM-2 CBS in the afternoons, while the 2nd run shows, which are usually a couple weeks behind, run on WCIU-26 at 9AM. Both stations are owned by different companies.

In NYC, Judge Judy 1st run was on WCBS-2 afternoons, 2nd run was on WLNY-55 in evenings. (actually others syndicated shows ran like this as well) In this case, both stations are owned by CBS.

I see, that makes sense. And we are technically a larger top-100 market, though, at times, it doesn't feel like it. Speaking of The CW/THIS TV, I came rather close to tuning in WILL the other day. However, I got a partial on RF 13, which leads me to believe that I may never manage to tune in WILL with this antenna. It's likely that I'll get too much interference from WISH's channel 9 transmitter any time the band happens to be up enough to tune in WILL, even though it is strongly directional.

I could not find any post about this...but I just discovered WAND put up a new digital translator for Jacksonville, W40CV:

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=print_station&facility_id=182815

The only reason why I just found this out, was that in doing some antenna testing in a new house I'm going to be moving to, the digital TV I was using to test with, kept scanning in TWO sets of WAND 17.1 & 17.2 channels. Of course, the TV I happened to be using does NOT allow you to see the actual RF freq of each (sub) channel, so I did some Googling. Evidently, WAND seems to be keeping this a secret, as their ONLY announcement of this seems to be on a Facebook posting.
But Wiki DID have this on it's entry for WAND.

I then took a DTV pal converter box over & it confirmed indeed that I was pulling this "2nd WAND signal" from J'ville - except it would only allow 1 set of these channels to prog to its channel list. Obviously, the translator maps the same as main transmitter. (& some TV/converters don't like that...)

For a translator, this seems to put out a strong signal; kind of surprised Block Comm spent this kind of money on yet a 2nd digital translator: (besides the Danville one)

https://maps.google.com/?q=http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/contourplot.kml%3Fgmap%3D2%26appid%3D1480747%26call%3DW40CV-D%26freq%3D0.0%26contour%3D51%26city%3DJACKSONVILLE%26state%3DIL.kml
Edited by dishrich - 7/28/12 at 7:27pm

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
That is because all 3 stations have the same owner and come from the same building.


WILL 90.9 has 23 hours of classical music on HD2. At noon they carry an arts interview program I wish they would skip. The HD3 is a simulcast of the news on AM.

Hello everybody,

I just moved to Champaign, IL. I recently hooked up my home-made television antenna in the attic. I am pleased to report that I am receiving the following local stations...

3.1 -- WCIA-DT -- CBS
3.2 -- WCIX-DT
12.1 -- WILL-DT PBS
12.2 -- WORLD
12.3 -- CREATE
15.1 -- WICD-DT -- ABC
15.2 -- CoolTV
17.1 -- WAND-DT -- NBC
17.2 -- WAND-SD -- Local Weather
23.1 -- WBUI-DT -- CW
23.2 -- ThisTV
39 -- Home Shopping Network

So, basically, I'm curious as to why I'm receiving almost every local television station except FOX? It appears that WCCU is only 23 miles Northeast of my house in Champaign. I've tried adjusting my antenna many times, but I still can't pick up FOX.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any thoughts and/or suggestions?

Thanks much!

WCCU's transmitter is North/North-East up by Rantoul. Depending on where you are in the city, it would be hard to get it from ground level. Of course, if you are in one of the dorms or apartment units that can get a good line of sight that direction, you may pick it up. Also depending on how good that home made antenna is, it may be the problem. Check out your location info at tvfool.com

TIme to drag out the antennas DISH customers starting midnite tonite if you want WICS/WICD

ENGLEWOOD, CO -- (Marketwire) -- 08/13/12 -- Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has threatened to block DISH customers' access to television stations in 45 cities across the country unless DISH accepts a massive price increase. The retransmission consent agreement between DISH and Sinclair expires August 15. If the companies fail to reach an agreement on price, DISH will no longer be allowed to carry Sinclair's signals.

"We carry more than 1,800 local broadcast stations nationwide. Sinclair is asking for more than any other station anywhere in the country," said Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming for DISH. "This goes beyond pure corporate greed -- it's profoundly insensitive to the needs of the public."

DISH has worked on retransmission contract negotiations with Sinclair for months, but Sinclair is insisting on a rate increase that would force DISH to pay more for those ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC channels than DISH pays to any other broadcaster. Sinclair also owns numerous stations such as CW and MyNetwork affiliates.

Higher costs will translate into higher fees for customers.

"We hope Sinclair will soon embrace a more reasonable attitude about price increases, so we can keep those channels on DISH," said Shull.
This year, broadcasting companies across the country have blacked out more than 50 channels on various pay-TV companies at various times. An industry watchdog group, American Television Alliance, recently called for U.S. Congress to "revamp the out of date rules" that favor those blackouts.

To learn more about DISH Network's negotiations with Sinclair Broadcasting, visit www.IControlMyTV.com.

As some may have heard Sinclair has pulled the Cool TV from most (if not all) of its stations--and I would presume WICD-15.2 is affected. (We never had CoolTV on the Springfield side of the market on WICS--and as of last check Country Network on 20.2 is still alive and kicking).

What is the latest from Chambana on 15.2? Any chance Sinclair will replace Cool with Country on 15.2 as is the case in Springfield? Or could the Cool/Sinclair spat be a harbinger of what could happen to Country Network in the future on Sinclair stations (i.e., could this be The Tube fiasco all over again?).

Thank you for posting this - I am working on putting up a new antenna at my new house. I tried it (a Winegard CH9095 UHF yagi) in the attic, but I am aiming to get all Peoria channels & the attic is not cutting it to get all of them. But today when it did pull in WYZZ-43 Bloomington - which is ALSO owned by Sinclair & normally carries CTV on 43.2 & TCN on 43.3 - 43.2 is just a black screen, while 43.3 is playing TCN normally.

I am REALLY hoping to pull in WAOE-59, as it carries Antenna TV on 59.2 - but considering it is pretty low powered, I'm not holding out that much hope...

No word yet if we're going to put something on in place of Cool.

I can confirm that TheCoolTV is off the air on WICD and that there is currently no .2 channel, country music or otherwise.

I recently put a yagi (Antennacraft® MXU47 UHF) in my attic (it barely fit - I didn't realize how big it was from the pictures) and am pointing it roughly at 45 degrees. I am not only getting WCCU at relatively full power, but I can even pull WAND quite well, which astonishes me, and WILL. Once Volo drops by to put up my wireless mast, it will be bye bye comcast. I have the advantage in living in new development (Savoy) and thus no tall structures around. Not even trees for that matter.

PS - a homemade antenna sounds rather interesting. I found several recipes online - which one are you following?

I'd be willing to give an attic antenna a try if I didn't have to string coax clear across the house. Does anyone know of a good wireless coax system?

So I stayed up until 1AM Saturday night to watch the end of the NASCAR race, when the news came on (shocked that Sinclair kept it's staff there until 1AM) noticed that WICS who produces the weekend news for both WICS and WICD have moved into a temporary set for their HD upgrade. Which brought this to mind, with Sinclair's continued cutbacks at WICD in terms of news operations based in Champaign, will Sinclair once they finish the studio upgrades at WICS in Springfield just completely shut down news at WICD and for all intensive purposes turn WICD into a WICS Satellite station like how WCIA uses WCIX in Springfield???

You could ask them over at the FB for WICS. If I had to guess, I would say like the majority of WICS newscasts, it was pre-taped. Doubt that they will ever upgrade to HD, since they are way behind the times. I remember when the whole digital changeover came about, the engineers were stating that Springfield was not a large enough market to do it right away.

Heh, great post. I actualy had fun replacing my cable wires and installing an attic antenna. Rg6 and old channel master products. Oh, and Steren. Can't forget them for my balanced three way splitter and cable.

Well, let's put it this way. I have access to the attic but emphatically do not have permission to run wire and cut holes, etc. I suppose, if I absolutely needed to, I could always set up a TV in my bedroom and run a coax cable through the attic door (which is in my room). The attic is uninsulated, though, so that'd make winter miserable around here. And all that just for some TV DXing.

WICS-20 local news is now in HD, & what a difference! (in a good way...)

Really will not make their reporting staff any better. 20 reminds me of a bunch of high school kids, that are in their own little world, and still have not figured out what is necessary news for the top of the hour, when the program starts.

I have given up on channel 20 for their sub-par third world news reporting, and will stick with Channel WAND.

I'll have to check if their sister station, WICD is in HD as well. I would assume so. WCIA looks so much better when they started broadcasting news in HD.

20 is in upscaled SD, 41 WICD news still SD. WCIA HD.

Did notice that WICD is still SD. Hardly watch their newscast anyway. Seems most of their news comes from Sprimgfield.

Looked like Sinclair's engineers at WICS realized they were doing something wrong, by showing upscaled SD, stating that it was HD for their news, when it wasn't. No more, gone as quick as it came.

What is up with the incompetency of the local FOX Channel 27/55. They invariably come out of commercials and the HD program will be in the letterboxed SD format. I have been watching the Falcons vs. 49ers football game and most of the 2nd half the channel is showing the SD signal on their HD channel. This is one of the poorest excuses for a TV station I have seen.

Did not see anything like that on UVerse today. So, was it 26/27 or was it 55 that you saw this behavior? Also was it OTA, or was it through a pay to watch provider (ie catv, satellite, uverse)?

This occurred on Channel 27 through Comcast cable. I am sure it is a problem with the local channel. After several commercials, they finally started showing the HD signal. This seems to happen all the time on prime time coming out of a commercial break. There have been occasions the show stayed in the SD mode for the last 15 minutes of a sitcom. This station is not seem to have a very serious attitude.

Sounds like it is a issue with Comcast side of things. I know that the Urbana plant was not kept up the best when Insight things.