Cleveland, OH - TWC - Page 101

It was a little here and there during a small stretch when ABC was in and out too, but overall, WKYC is a consistent 5 to 6 bar reception now. I'll get a little artifacting now and then, but regardless of time of day, it's 5 to 6 bar. I use an indoor Terk HDTVi with a 10 dB amplifier, which without I can't get WKYC. And yeah, I'm at the very bottom of the valley, but have a decent view towards the northern horizon. I can't get any local Akron stations because of my location with respect to the hills. My receiver can just barely notice WVIZ, but I can't come close to reception. That'll have to wait.

I live in Lyndhurst, and I can confirm that your suspicions are true, at least for me.

It seems like last year WVIZ was saying June of 2005 for getting the full power antenna up in North Royalton. Any news on this front? The website says spring/summer 2005.

Well, we'll see this afternoon. I'm getting the antenna re-attached today. I expect to be able to get Fox, WUAB, and ABC for sure (I was able to get them in Shaker Heights with an indoor antenna).

I'd be surprised if you didn't get everyone save for WVIZ, and perhaps WKYC.

BTW, re: WVIZ's full power installation - didn't someone just note that they're aiming for the end of the summer? That would seem to make sense. There are no more obstacles that I know of, and last we heard from Gary at WVIZ, they were actually planning the facility (late last year).

Re: Euclid vs. South Euclid - thanks for the update. I don't get up there much, and to someone down here in Akron, they may as well be next door


I have to turn OFF my indoor antenna's amplification, or I'll lose all the other locals. And turning it on with WKYC doesn't seem to change the situation - lots of multipathing, and not even close to a solid lock most of the time. My antenna isn't as high in the house as yours, but I'm physically much higher up than you are. Also, I have nearby trees that could be causing problems, though they don't with the other DT stations in the market.

Also, I pick up absolutely no signal on DT 26 (WVIZ), amplified or no. It doesn't even move the meter. I don't expect much out of that small stick on Brookpark Road, tho.

Funny you mention that. When I was trying the $50 Radio Shack indoor antenna, if I amplified fully in order to get WKYC, I'd lose WJW (Fox). I don't think ABC was up and running at that point yet, as it was down when I first hooked up to the HDTV signal. CBS came in still.


I have a tree right in front my house. That kept me from getting a consistent lock on FOX and ABC. They'd come in, but would break up here and there. I lifted my antenna up higher, about 3 feet and all of a sudden I'm getting NBC, at night with some locking up. But Fox and ABC would artifact too much for my taste. So I moved to the other side of the house without the tree and locked all stations but WKYC and WVIZ. I think I lost all of WKYC due to cable length. When I then moved the antenna up into the attic, I was finally able to get a consistent signal for WKYC. If you can, I'd try elevating the antenna more. It's crazy but less than 8 feet made the difference of no WKYC and consistent WKYC. It isn't perfect, but it breaks up at a rate that I can accept, maybe once or twice during a one hour program, at most.


When I map the channels, the receiver stays on WVIZ for a bit longer, but in the end it says NOPE.

It was pretty much a wasted afternoon. The guy ran a new cable from the antenna into a side window so we could check. When I ran a scan, I only got two channels: WKYC and WOIO (both VERY strong), but none of the UHF stations... He worked with some other antennas, but we never were able to get any others.

There's a pretty big tree right in the sight line of the antenna, but I was disappointed that I couldn't get anything else and I didn't have him run the line permanently. Unfortunately, it didn't help that I knew more about digital signals than the installer did.

So basically, I didn't do anything more. I still am surprised about the lack of UHF signals, but I'm going to let it go for now. I may see about finding another technician who might be better able to help, or even run the line myself.

Call Cleveland Antenna Service 440-237-6888. Jim West will answer and send his son Joel. If problem is fixable;he will do it. Highly recommend this company. I am very fussy with my TV reception, and they did well by me. Let me know how they do for you.
Other readers with antenna problems, call JIm

That is surprising. What kind of antenna are we talking here? Maybe it's VHF only?

Still, you shouldn't have any problems with the UHF signals if you're getting WKYC and WOIO that strong. They're all in the same area, antenna-wise! Every Cleveland market DT station (save for the temporary WVIZ setup and Akron's WEAO/Canton's WDLI) is within a couple miles or so of each other in the Parma area.

Good luck to you in getting someone more qualified to help ya out. I'd be surprised if you aren't able to get the rest of 'em at some point.

WEWS-DT was off for a while earlier this evening, but it's back now. It also kicked off for about 5 minutes during last night's NBA Championship game.

Thanks for the referral rlockshin.

I also think if I had taken more time to look for the channels, rather than just autoscanning, I might have found more. I'm going to keep trying.

You are very welome. Joe will check signal strength with a special instrument that measures digital signal strength. Then you go in the house and he makes minor adjustments as you look for the picture

So you got the two lowest frequency broadcasts, but none of the UHF ones? That sure sounds suspicious. I'd try it again with a known quality VHF/UHF antenna and a good piece of RG6 cable. Some of those old South Euclid antennas may reach all the way back to the days before UHF was on the air.

Is anyone else noticing a problem in WEWS's upconverting and stretching equipment?

Any upconverting/stretching they do, I'm getting a black bar on the right side of the 16:9 screen. It's like they're not filling the entire widescreen with the upconvert. It fills out to the left OK.

I notice this on both my SA 8000HD cable box and my US Digital OTA box.

Of course, as I'm sure Hookbill will point out ( ), I am downconverting both boxes to 480i and displaying it on my (still pretty good) Toshiba analog 32" set. But I do not believe the set or the 480i downconvert has anything to do with it. WEWS didn't have this problem before the past couple or three days, and WKYC does not have the same problem when it upconverts and stretches material on both of the same boxes.

Anyone else notice this?

I've just taken a look at "Good Morning America" on WEWS HD and I'm seeing a thin bar on each side of the screen. I actually prefer this as the people arn't appearing as fat.

Hope you feel better.

just depends how much overscan you have on your set, it is clearly different from the way it used to be, its definately less stretched, i have bars on both sides of the screen, you have more overscan so you only have a bar on the right.

WEWS doesn't know what they are doing. First they had this horrible stretch, that left about an inch on each side blank, on my set anyway. Then they took off the stretch, which is they way it should have stayed. Now they are using this half stretch. Why can't they just make up their mind.

It's probably the scanning on my set that makes it appear mostly on the right, but it is most assuredly there. And as such, when I kick the cable box into "stretch" (which actually squishes 16:9 to 4:3!), it makes the picture look a little skinnier than it should. Though, it's not as bad as if I use "stretch" (squish, as it were) on a true 16:9 HD picture.

And yes, the bars make the widescreen picture look less "squatty" in letterbox mode. I can almost live with that, though the 16:9 to 4:3 squeeze looked pretty good when the stretch is done "right".

I wrote WEWS about this, but they haven't responded. I guess I'll live with it. I agree that they should just turn off stretch-o-vision entirely.

Any Adelphia subs having problems with ESPNHD or StarzHD? All the other channels are fine but those two keep breaking up.

Thanks,

JP

[And yes, the bars make the widescreen picture look less "squatty" in letterbox mode. I can almost live with that, though the 16:9 to 4:3 squeeze looked pretty good when the stretch is done "right".]


I have the same issue here in Portage Co. Trust me, they never respond to anything. Their CE ignors every letter. They get that way you know.

On another note: I have lost WUAB=DT OTA entirely; now that Enterprise is gone I don't care too much, but it used to come in wall to wall. Are they "upgrading"?

I was in email contact with the station manager at WEWS. He said he would look into the stretch issue about 2 months ago or so. I guess this is what they came up with.

It appears WUAB is adding a sub-channel, a music channel I think. They probably just screwed something up, I'd try re-scanning tomorrow.

I haven't seen any problems on ESPNHD. I don't get Starz...

You're right, it think its called FUSE, which I already get on Directv.

Thanks...the problem cleared up around 8pm.

To throw my two cents in on the the antennae thing...had an old one in the attic and ran a line for it to where my Dish receiver currently is. I live in western North Olmsted and could barely pull 2 or 3 stations. I had previously purchased the HDTV from Terk and had it pulling in the same amount of stations having it positioned behind the tv. I put the TERK in the attic and hooked up the line and BINGO!!! I get 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 8.1, 19.1, 43.1 and 2 and 61.1 all with over 90% signal.
Just some info for anyone wondering. I was as surprised as anyone that the TERK WAY outperformed the older bigger aerial, but facts are facts and now i can finally watch TV the way it supposed to be watched!!

No, it's "The Tube". Still just testing with color bars. IMO, the color bars will probably be preferable to the rock/pop music they're supposed to carry as programming.

Which Terk model was this? Is it the HDTVi? (Silver Sensor clone with VHF rabbit ears) Sounds like it, if you had it by the TV.

I don't know which old antenna you had up there, and I'm not an antenna expert, so I can't say why it happened for you that way. Generally speaking, Terk antennas aren't worth the cardboard boxes they're packaged in. (With one exception - the Terk rebranded version of the SquareShooter...but even then, you pay $50 extra for the ability to pick it up at Best Buy.)

I agree for the most part, though with my HDTVi, I'm picking up WKYC. *nudge nudge*

Well, Joel West came out on Friday and took his meter up on the roof. Basically, he stated that I SHOULD be able to pick up everything with little trouble, yet his meter indicated sporadic signals, indicating interference from someplace. He was able to get good signals, but had to move tha antenna around to do it. He suggested a new antenna with a rotor. I'm going to go ahead and do it, since there's no way of telling when Dish Network will get the HD locals (they're claiming early next year, but who knows what that means?)

I am glad that you were pleased with Joe ; I thought he knew what he was doing. Please keep us posted on the new antenna and rotor. Hopefully, it will solve your problems.