Nashville, TN - Comcast - Page 69

Originally Posted by Sevenfeet

Gee, you got the phone number for engineering? That's wasn't on their web site. I tried the main number with no success. Thanks for getting through to them.

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak

Is anyone having trouble with FOX HD tonight? Both of my records for Prison Break and Terminator were unwatchable due to freezes in video and audio. I've hard artifacts before but never this bad.

Originally Posted by CaboWabo

Whats the difference between Comcast's Full Basic vs Digital Starter package if using a cable card and no box? Do you get more HD channels in the DS Package? They are both listed at the same price of $52.50 per month

Originally Posted by andydumi

I think they both get the same channels. However the digital uses a box, and the other does not. And the digital gets you QAM HD channels (locals only) if your TV supports it, but no actual HD channels in the guide.

Originally Posted by yotoad

hello everyone -- i have an HDTV, live in the Forest Hills area and just bought a OTA indoor antenna -- the Terk HDTVa -- i only receive 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 8.1, 8.2 -- no channel 5, 17 in HD -- channel 58 shows up in my list, but it doesn't come through at all.

I have an attic antenna that is old and huge -- i wonder if i could convert it to catch the signals? the wire that it connects to isn't coax, it's a weird six-pronged connection that looks like two "^"s on top of each other.

anyway -- two questions -- what's the best OTA antenna that can fit in a cabinet (wife's requirement) or could i convert the old antenna to coax cable?

i am a complete newbie, just for you to know

just want to catch all the big stations that i can.

thanks!
yotoad

Originally Posted by yotoad

hello everyone -- i have an HDTV, live in the Forest Hills area and just bought a OTA indoor antenna -- the Terk HDTVa -- i only receive 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 8.1, 8.2 -- no channel 5, 17 in HD -- channel 58 shows up in my list, but it doesn't come through at all.

I have an attic antenna that is old and huge -- i wonder if i could convert it to catch the signals? the wire that it connects to isn't coax, it's a weird six-pronged connection that looks like two "^"s on top of each other.

anyway -- two questions -- what's the best OTA antenna that can fit in a cabinet (wife's requirement) or could i convert the old antenna to coax cable?

Originally Posted by Sevenfeet

Hi Yotoad,

Welcome to the wild and woolly world of antenna physics. There is a lot already posted here and in the antenna forum one level up that discusses this, but I'll try to sum up some of the things you'll be faced with.

First, there is no such thing as an HD antenna. So guess what? That old antenna that's been in your house since the '70's will probably pick up many of the area HD stations. That being said, it still may be not the best possible antenna for the job. But it's there and it's probably worth a try.

Most of the old antennas put on top of homes and in attics are some type of directional Yagi type antenna. That is it has some sort of center rod with branches on both sides, often at an angle, and a device called a reflector at one end. Properly pointed, the antenna should look this this:

/ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\
<--------------- ********************Station Tower**
\\ / / / / /

Where the object on the left of this figure is the reflector.

Antennas aren't magic...they can only pick up the airborne signal based on the strength of the signal, it's clarity and the design of the antenna to maximize the signal. It cannot make the signal more powerful. You may have seen or heard of powered antenna boosters. They DO NOT boost the ability of the antenna to catch the signal. What they do is take the signal and boost it for the trip down the wire where it eventiually gets to your TV.

That trip down the wire results in signal loss for every foot it travels. The signal is measured in decibels, much like audio waves. The scale is plus or minus zero where 0 is considered background noise. So if the incoming signal is +15 dbs and it loses 8 dbs of strength going down the wire to your TV, it ends up at 7 dbs for the destination. But what if the signal coming in is only +6 dbs? If it loses 8 dbs on the way to the TV, then your TV's receiver can't distinquish the signal for other background noise and you get no picture. An antenna booster might take the +6 db signal and add another +15 dbs to it, giving your TV a much better chance of receiving it.

But sometimes even boosters aren't enough. The signal for a far away station might just be too weak to begin with. A crappy antenna booster might introduce too much noise into the signal its trying to amplify...this wasn't a big problem in the pre-digital TV era but now that signal must be pristine enough to discern digital data. And your antenna might not have the best design to grab a good clean signal from the air. Finally, terrain is a huge problem for many of us. Hills, buldings, and even leafy trees can be enough to block TV signals (those of us in Bellevue near you know the terrain problems well). An indoor attic mounting will also decrease the amount of decibels your antenna can discern....mounting outside gives you a much better shot.

The good news is that you can probably do some experiments with your old attic antenna to see if you can pick up HD television towers. Even with its age, it's surface area and height in the house means its far more likely to pick up a good signal versus a small indoor antenna near your TV. Your first problem is the cable itself. It sounds like you have some sort of proprietary design used a long time ago. All antennas of this kind have two flat screw-in 300 ohm leads someone on its spine (just like all old TVs used to have up until the 1980s). You can easily attach a 300 ohm->75 ohm (coax) converter at this point and connect it to a conventional coax cable. Converters of this type are still available from places like Radio Shack. Or if you want to better your chances, consider a antenna booster which will have the necessary circuitry built in. Radio Shack sells them too but the gold standard in boosters is the Channelmaster 7777. Randolf and Rice (downtown around the corner from Deja Vu) carries it locally or you can find it on the Internet. If the cable from the antenna to the TV isn't a coax cable, consider replacing it. If you do this yourself, make sure you use quality cable like RG-6 type coax, not the cheap RG-59 cable. Again, make sure that the length of cable from the antenna to the TV is as short as possible since every foot weakens the signal.

Now yagi type antennas are directional meaning that you must point them in the proper direction to get the best signal. The best resource on the web to determine which way your antenna should point is antennaweb.org. But since you're in Forest Hills, its safe to say that you have some challenges. Channel 4's antenna is about 6-7 miles NW of you on Knob Hill off White Bridge Rd. Channel 5, 17, 30 and 58's antennas are all on the same hilltop in north Nashville 15-17 miles away from you and your biggest challenge. Your easiest and strongest signal is Channel 2 and Channel 8's shared tower which if you have a good view to the south, I bet you can see it just south of Old Hickory Blvd just east of Hillsboro Rd. If you point your antenna to the north to get the distant towers, you'll be pointing away from Channel 2 and 8. But that may still work for you since those towers are so strong, odds are their signal will be reflected off of something to the north of you and bounce back. This is called multipath and can be a huge problem in antenna reception, but can be beneficial in cases like this. In the old days, HDTVs handled multipathed signals badly but advances in technology have minimized this problem for many people. If this doesn't work for you, you might have to resort to an antenna rotator (yup, just like the 1970s). A friend of mine with a house in Donelson has this problem and uses a rotator.

Even configured correctly and amplified, your attic antenna still may not be enough to pick up the signals on the north side of town. But its probably worth a try since you appear to at least be able to partially bring in Channel 58 with a small antenna. If this doesn't work, then your only option is to replace the antenna with a model that promises better overall signal gain and/or move it to a mast on the roof of your house. We folks in Bellevue have had notoriously rotten luck with some of these stations mostly due to the hills in the area. Forest Hills has its own challenges, but again, location is everything.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Originally Posted by andy.s.lee

The HDTVa is a decent indoor antenna. I would actually suggest moving this antenna up to the attic to see if things clear up. OTA reception usually gets much better as you move the antenna higher (attic or roof) because the signal passes through less building material and you're picking up less signal scatter / bounces (signal reflections make it harder to decode the channel).



Can you post a picture of the antenna and connector?

If this antenna was used successfully in the past for analog TV, I'm sure it will also work great for your new TV as long as we can figure out the right interconnect.



If you must keep the antenna close to the TV, the unamplified Terk HDTVi might be a little better. Amps can sometimes make things worse rather than better. Amplified antennas generally don't improve things unless the cable length is fairly long (> 30 ft) or if the signal is split to multiple destinations. If you end up moving the antenna up to the attic, then you're fine sticking with the amplified HDTVa.

Be warned that indoor reception can be very unpredictable. There's a lot of hidden "stuff" (pipes, ducts, wires, foil-backed insulation, metallic objects, neighbors, etc.) in and around your house that can cause reception difficulties. As you move up, your antenna starts to rise above most of the interference sources and the system performance becomes more predictable.

For indoor reception, there's just no substitute for trial-and-error, so be prepared in case your particular situation is not so cut-and-dry. You may want to return products that don't work out for you, so check the return policy of your sources.



It would also be helpful if you could enter your exact address into the analysis tools at antennaweb.org or tvfool.com and then post your results here (just the digital channel list is enough). This will tell us the strength and direction of the incoming signals, so that a suitable antenna setup can be suggested.



Best regards,
Andy

Originally Posted by yotoad

here's my information from tvfool

Originally Posted by CaboWabo

Whats the difference between Comcast's Full Basic vs Digital Starter package if using a cable card and no box? Do you get more HD channels in the DS Package? They are both listed at the same price of $52.50 per month

Originally Posted by CaboWabo

I've confirmed that the $52.50 Digital Starter package does get all the HD channels (except National Geographic HD) with a cablecard without paying for the HD package. And the $52.50 Standard Cable package (basic + expanded) with a cablecard will only get the local network HD channels plus Mojo.

Originally Posted by CaboWabo

I have a LG 42LB1DR LCD television that has a bult-in DVR and it uses TV Guide On Screen and a cablecard. The TVGOS gets most all of the HD channel data except the ones I listed above.

Originally Posted by andydumi

I wonder if anyone else's experience is similar with a TivoHD or a Series 3.

Originally Posted by Wryker

I have 2 HDTiVo's, 2 Series 2 TiVo's, and one Comcast PVR box - all of them properly show me all HD stations information and channel numbers with no problems.