San Francisco, CA - OTA - Page 108

Q: what's the cheapest route to get espn/2 HD & FSN HD when getting locals OTA?

I can't answer your question, because I don't know the various packages available from the four possible sources, but I can tell you where to look. You can check the web sites or contact these four: Comcast and Astound cable and DirecTV and Dish Satellite services. All four offer ESPN2 but I don't think all offer FSN.

Larry
SF

Hello all. First time poster here. I have a very odd situation at home I'm hoping someone could help explain. I started out with the channelmaster 4228 going into a directv/tivo box (hr10-250), and this worked out great to pick up everything but nbc (vhf). I therefore went out and bought a vhf antenna and just plopped it on top of the pole holding up the 4228. This did acquire a signal for me, but it's never higher than 68, and most of the time worse. Now the strange part...

I recently bought a tv for the bedroom which has a built-in tuner so decided to split the 4228 signal into it, realizing I would not get nbc. Well, viola! Not only is NBC coming in on that TV, but its signal is between 88-100!

I tried disconnecting the vhf antenna going to the tivo tuner in the main room to see if it works there too, but still no go. Please enlighten me if possible. Thanks.

Are you combining the two antennas with a VHF/UHF diplexer? As the 4228 does have some performance on VHF, w/o a diplexer, you are probably getting conflicting signals (if using a splitter as a combiner).

I suspect that you are having multi-path problems and the new TV's tuner is doing a better job of managing it.

What does analog 11 look like?

Where are you located? KNTV is on San Bruno Mtn., instead of Sutro Tower, so you may need to point the antennas in different directions depending on where you are.

Thanks for the reply. I think I found the problem. I moved the tivo box into the bedroom and the signal was again significantly lower. I think it's just a matter of the OTA tuner inside the box not being up to par with the one inside the tv.

Hi, I am trying to search this thread; however, it can't come up with a result. I am planning to buy the Terk HD-TVS Slim on Amazon. I live in the East-Bay, Hayward. Does anyone here have a hand-on experience with the HD-TVS? The reason why I want to buy the HD-TVS because it is compact and can cover both the VHF and UHF. Also, it does get a good review. I just don't know if it will work good in the Bay Area though. TIA.

Edit: Nevermind, I just found a good deal on the Winegard SS 2000 SquareShooter and bought it. Up on reading the specs, the Terk HD-TVS is the same as the non-Amplified SS 1000 where as the SS 2000 is the amplified one with 12dB gains. For ~$95.00 it's a better deal than the Terk on Amazon.

Please let us know how well the SS works for you after you've set it up.

Hello. I am trying to read up on the OTA info and would like to get pointers. I have just moved to Palo Alto, but will likely move to Santa Clara actually in a month time. We have an HD-ready TV (no ATSC tuner). I understand that I'll need at least a set-top box, and an atenna, or maybe 2. What are your recommendations? Can anyone point me to the right direction on how to set things up properly?

Right now, I have absolutely nothing other than the TV. No cable installed, etc. Do I need to get the cable service first (DTV, Comcast, etc?), then get a splitter/switch to setup the OTA stuff? Sorry if it's sounding silly. Still got a lot to learn. Many thanks ahead!

Before we make any recommendations, we need to know whether you want to go with cable or with satellite? In any case, for that and for OTA, I wouldn't do anything until you've moved to Santa Clara. Makes no sense to put up an antenna, or have cable or satellite installed in you're going to move in a month.

Once you decide on cable or satellite, we can direct you to one of the companies you'd want to contact. For OTA, you might need another box, or you might not... it depends on what service you get. Some of the satellite boxes have OTA tuners in them. In the mean time, buy a Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna, a Winegard YA-1713 VHF antenna and a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp. Once you've moved, you can install the antennas and pre-amp and be ready to hook it to whatever box you get.

Larry
SF

Anyone else having a problem with KCRA-3 on Directv? For the last three days I have had audio drop outs and brief pixelization issues.

I just intalled a 4228 in Daly city in west side of Westlake and scanned channels into my new Bravia SXRD rear projection set and got an amazing amount of stations, several in fact from Sacramento and modesto, not to mention channel 36 out of San Jose and all of the local bay area channels. I got so many channels they are not listed in Antenna Web or Titan TV listings in the bay area. I believe the total was 66 channels with 44 of them digital only. When I go back over to the new house(not moved in yet) I will have to write down all the numbers.

Thanks a lot Larry!

I just wanted to make sure before we proceed. So basically, the OTA is only for HD and the rest of other channels would need to be acquired through the local cable company then, or am I completely mistaken?

What I am trying to ask is that can an OTA setup grab some other local channels that I can use in lieu of subscribing (*ahem* paying) for cable?

Thanks again

Sure, you can get all your local TV stations OTA with the antennas that Larry specified. You only need cable (or satellite) for non-local programming, such as HBO, Showtime, etc.

The SS will arrive on Thursday. I will post the result after I have set it up. According to AntennaWeb.org, I should have good result because Hayward is in the middle between SF and SJ.

I've got a stationary houseboat in Sausalito and have wondered if there's any chance of ever being able to get digital TV there. When I tried an in-house antenna with an HDTV last summer, I couldn't get any digital signals at all. There appear to be some transmitters on top of the Marin Headlands peninsula, but I don't know if any are or will be used for television.

Because I'm hard of hearing and television is my primary source of information for emergency information (not radio, which I can't understand), I'm concerned I and many other people with hearing loss could get cut off from emergency information after an earthquake if I/we can't get over-the-air television and if satellite receivers don't hold up. (Hopefully any new TV transmitters will hold up after a strong earthquake!)

Dana

I have installed the Winegard SS 2000 and got excellent result. My house is a single story house. The SS was installed on the side wall of the house, not on the roof, due to the existing Dish antenna. I didn't feel like climbing up the roof or make some new holes in the wall. I just remove the Dish, put the SS in the existing pole, using the same RG6 cable from the Dish, Done

At the other end, I have installed the 5-way splitters from RS (1 input, 4 output) to connect to the existing wires in the cable box for the 4 rooms.

For analog, I am reveiving the following channels:

VHF: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11
UHF: 14, 20, 26, 32, 36, 38, 42, 44, 48, 54, 66.

For digital, I am getting all of the channels in the yellow and red zone as indicated by AntennaWeb.org. I am getting all of the channels from either side of the Bay (SF - SJ). I am actually get some channels that do not appear in the list. All of the signal are 80%+

For my address, AntennaWeb.org only gave me 3 zones: yellow, red and violet.

Violet VHF = KSBW-DT 10.1 NBC SALINAS, CA and KSBW-DT 8.1 NBC SALINAS, CA.

Violet UHF = KTFK-DT 62 SAH STOCKTON, CA and KTNC-DT 14 SPA CONCORD, CA

Those are the 4 channels I am not getting.

As you can tell, I am very happy with the result. I am getting all of the channels that I should have received from an antenna which is smaller than my old Dish antenna. The SS 2000 works as advertised. The only zone it won't work with is Violet which is stated in the box

Thanks for the report. It sounds a total success, congratulations!

Hi,

I live in Los Altos. Looking for (roof top) OTA antenna installer recommendations. Please post or send me a PM.

Thx

Just a little FYI..... Sometimes the prediction programs don't interpret the FCC database correctly.

KSBW-DT is on channel 10. KSBW analog is on channel 8 so there is no DT 8 yet. They will switch off 10 and change to DT 8 on the transition day. KTNC-DT is currently using channel 63. They will switch to channel 14 on the transition day. KDTV is currently analog on channel 14 from Fremont so there is no DT 14 locally yet. Both KTFK and KTNC are transmitting from Mt. Diablo now. If those show up as violet then you probably don't have line-of-sight to Mt. Diablo.

Chuck

Chuck,

according to
http://www.choisser.com/sfonair.html
If you are talking about the PSIP channel number which OTA tuners recognize, there is a digital 8-1 and 8-2 (KSBW) from Fremont Peak. Also KDTV does have a very nice HighDef signal on digital 14-1 on Mt Allison in the hills above Fremont/Milpitas. I get it very clearly but my Spanish is not so good..

peter

That's their PSIP channel info. The analog signal is still on channel 8 and their digital transmitter is on channel 10. The digital will move to channel 8 next February.

Larry
SF

KRON has added a new sub-channel - traffic cams on 4-3.

Larry
SF

Re-scan alert: Most TV sets will probably need a new channel scan to receive the changed KRON-DT signal.

(BTW, Larry--or any KRON lurker--something in the new 720p stream on D04-2 is giving FusionHDTV version 3.66.01 fits. The picture periodically freezes for a second or so. I hope that they're still fine tuning the encoder settings!)

I saw that today on 4.3. Shot of the Golden Gate bridge approach.

Alan

The past few days they are just showing color bars for test I guess on 4.3

I also posted this on HDTV-in-SFbay on Yahoo Groups:

I am seeing frequent and constant audio dropouts on a brand new Sharp Aquos 1080p, but only on channels KQED/9.1 and KCSM/43.1,
coincidentally both PBS stations. KQED's is fairly random, but happens about 5-6 times in a minute, whereas KCSM sounds like it
is dropping every other word or repeating every other word (I'm not sure which).
The picture is great, with no obvious visual artifacts when this is happening.
I also own a 2 year old Panasonic 720p LCD which is NOT affected, even on the same antenna drop.
The antenna is an old, roof-mounted Channel Master, no amplification, with no more than a 30 foot cable run.
It is oriented according to antennaweb.


To me it seems like this could be caused by audio buffer overflow/underflow during encoding.
The engineer at KQED told me that no one else has complained, but he did see some anomalies on their StreamScope.
Their encoder manufacturer it checking it out, but says that the problem is usually with the set.
I never got any response from KCSM. Sharp, of course, says the problem is with the two stations
since this problem doesn't happen on all channels.


I can see that maybe this new has Sharp has inferior decoding or error recovery,
especially since a 2 year old HDTV on the same drop works without problem.
However, I'm also thinking that maybe the new set is more sensitive simply because it has a faster processor,
and no one else has complained because there are few of these new 1080p sets out there receiving OTA.
The built-in signal meter display shows KQED about the same strength as KCBS/5.1 , while KCSM is about the same strength as KGO/7.1.


The Sharp's picture is great, so I'd like to avoid returning the set, if possible.
I'd appreciate any suggestions workarounds, e.g. service menu changes (the firmware is current) or any explanations you might have.

Thanks...

Newer ATSC tuners have been getting better rather than worse in my experience of the past several years. It's possible that Sharp has cut some corners, I suppose, but I doubt it. Far more likely is that you have (1) a bad set or (2, far more likely) a bad splitter or piece of coax someplace in your antenna run. Even a pinch point can cause reflections that will appear as multipath to the tuner. And the degree of the problem will depend both on the distance of the individual set from the flaw as well as the frequency of the channel. So there are plenty of variables to explain your observations with only local problem sources. Try hooking up the Sharp to the exact same coax connector that's working OK on the old set (i.e., move it to the room where you have the old set) and see if it doesn't work better. If so, start hunting down the wiring problem(s).

Thanks for the input, but if it wasn't clear in my original post, I meant to say that both sets behave differently on the same antenna drop, i.e. I already tried what you suggested. The Sharp has problems in both rooms and the old set does not have a problem in either room.

Then it's pretty clear that the Sharp is defective, IMO.

Just heard from KQED last night and said that their encoder manufacturer has examined the KQED stream and concluded there are no audio buffer problems therein. So this would seem to narrow it down to the set, but then KQED told me that another viewer in the Bay Area has also complained about the exact same problem on another brand new 1080p set (this time a Sony).