Orlando, FL - OTA - Page 46

Hey guys can anyone confirm that channel 56.1 is now broadcasting in 720p HD? I just turned on the Devil Rays game tonight (april 21,07) and my receiver says the channel is coming in 720p. It looks much better than the old 480i stretched signal I used to get. I wonder if this is only for the baseball games or if its a full channel update.


WOOT go RAYS!!!

I see that. But it is a pretty poor quality for 720p. Looks like a 480i picture stretched and upconverted to 720p. DirecTV has the Marlins game via FSN Florida and it is in 720p and the picture is a lot clearer than the Rays/Indians game.

So for I got the XG-91 UHF antenna up in the attic, and my 6.1 is working again. Will add the Winegard 4053p soon for my VHF signals.

BTW I lost 56.1 but this is in a different direction then my 6.1 / 9.1 / 18.1 / 24.1 / 35.1 / 65.1

I am an Orlando Brighthouse customer who is getting an absolutely awful picture quality on TNT HD tonight for the Magic game. LOTS of blurring and pixelation. The NBA on TNT used to be my favorite thing to watch in HD, but lately it's been just terrible. Is there a problem with my reception or is anybody else in the area having this problem? Thanks in advance.

How does it look on channel 65? I'm watching the OTA version and the picture is a typical crappy SD picture (over saturated colors and blurry), but there is no pixelation.

BTW, is the TNTHD version actually 16x9 HD?

On 1165, the game looked ok, but man, the pixelation on TNT HD is just unbearable. I can't watcy anymore.

I believe the TNT HD version is 16x9 HD.

It must be a problem with BHN, because I have the TNT HD broadcast from DirecTV and it is 16x9 1080i, with a good clean picture. OTA 65-1 is showing as 720p but the PQ is not HD grade. It looks like a 4x3 SD picture up converted to 720p and those horrible black stripe and gray vertical bars added to it. The least they could do is make the vertical bars black so they would match and blend into the black stripe between the picture and the vertical bars.

I just read an article about how antennas are making a comeback because of the digital HD signal.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

This quote cracked me up:

The difference in picture quality is a matter of opinion, said Robert Mercer, spokesman for satellite provider DirecTV Inc. "We believe the DirecTV HD signal is superior to any source, whether it's over-the-air or from your friendly neighborhood cable company," Mercer said.

"Superior" to OTA? WTF? OK, maybe if you live in the mountains and you use a coat hanger for your antenna.

lol

Has anyone noted a weakness in the WESH D-TV signal?

I've gone from an 85 on my Accurian tuner to a 20.

Thanks

Good signal here in the Suntree area. Signal strength is between 96% to 100% on 2-1 and 2-2. Using OTA tuner on a H20 DirecTV receiver.

I'm running a Terk UHF antenna mounted on my roof and I pick up pretty much all of the major digital stations and a variety of others (I need to setup a VHF antenna so I can pick up WESH).

My only difficulty is that the audio on WOFL-DT has lots of beeps and chirps (which can get annoying very quickly).

Can anyone recommend anything to improve my signal strength? I'm using the amp that came with the Terk and I just spent a good 15 minutes on the roof making minor adjustments but I still can't shake the audio difficulties.

Would a nicer amp help me out or am I stuck?

Oh, I'm in Palm Bay off of Malabar Road if that helps any.

Thanks!

I am in Suntree and have a 90% or better signal strength, all the time. I know you are about 15 miles south of me, but I am using a 32 element Radio Shack antenna with a 4 output line amp, feeding 4 outlets throughout the house.

I have suddenly lost WKMG-DT 6.1 CBS on both my OTA receivers (built in Samsung HLR5667W and ATI HDTV Wonder. All other channels are working as expected. Any thoughts?

I live in Apopka (32712), the fact that all other channels are working fine really has me stumped.

Okay in New Smyrna Beach at 3:40pm.

Search this thread and you will find it is always the high frequency channels that go first. Use analog off air channels like WRBW as a "snow test" to see if your high frequencies have dropped in signal strength.

65 (analog) is a snow fest and I could see about 20% of the picture (judge judy). 65.1 (digital) no signal.

So I assume this means I have bad coax or splitter or a combination there of?

Yes, start the search. Have someone watch the snowy picture while you wiggle each connection.

I do hear that the attic is nice this time of year

I'm in Palm Bay (32909) and I was recently using a Terk HDTVo, however it seems to just have died... I was picking up a majority of the channels out of Orlando (WESH was flasky and Fox 35.1 had audio beeps).

I bought a pre-amp that I thought would help with my Terk to help out with WESH and Fox but that just interfered with the Terk because it already has a preamp built in. (which I didn't know).

Can anyone recommend an antenna and where to get one locally perhaps?

I'm mostly concerned with all the major networks in HD (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX), but I'm assuming if I can pick those up, I can snag all the other locals as well.

My plan is to get a real antenna and skip the Terk like brands and then keep the pre-amp I bought which has the following specs.

Gain: 16dB VHF, 22dB UHF
Low Noise: <3.0 dB VHF, <2.4dB UHF
75Ohm

I'm going back to store where I got the pre-amp as they specialize in this (Tedco in Melbourne) to see what he has. I figure that's a safe bet and it's also what people are recommending I do over in the HDTV Hardware section. Just wanted to check with other locals to see what you're using.

Thanks!

Have you already checked out http://www.antennaweb.org? That's a good place to start to determine what type of antenna to choose. And they've got a ton of attenna reviews.

I've done all the antennaweb research... Like I mentioned, I had the Terk for a few months but it died out and I'm ready for a real antenna. I'm curious what others are using in the area.

I can only report on what has worked for me in Melbourne Beach, around 52 miles from the antenna farm. I have a SS-1000 (no preamp) with a CM 7777 preamp, about 75 feet of cable. Perfect reception of all Orlando stations except WESH CH 2, which broadcasts on CH11 (for digital). I cut a small piece (about 28 inches, as I recall) of twinlead as a separate Ch 11 antenna, and mounted it on top of the SS-1000, and ran the output into the 7777. Perfect. I learned about cutting a channel-specific antenna on this forum in the antenna thread.
The SS-1000 is mounted into the house (CBS) and into the fascia. It is rock solid, works very well, and is relatively unobtrusive. Several people have asked where I got a square satellite dish. Of course, when I start to explain, their eyes glaze over (cable users!).
I chose this approach because I have a tile roof and no chimney, which makes roof mounting difficult, to say the least. I could have tried an attic mount of a yagi-antenna (which many favor), but I have a radiant heat barrier, which would have complicated the installation (aim with compass, then cut a hole in the barrier and hope you got it right).

The guys at tedco should be able to help you, if they have anything in stock. Every time I've tried to buy antennas from them, they were out.

I am about 45 miles out and I us an antennas direct xg-43 (uhf) and an antenna craft y5-7-13 (vhf for wesh) in my attic. The antennas are fed into a cm-7777 pre-amp. This setup works perfect for me because I don't have a lot of room in my attic and the two antennas allow me to position them in different areas. Before I got the vhf antenna, I tried the diy type, but is didn't work all that well in my attic. Outdoors it would probably be fine.

Also check out lowes channel master antennas (cm3016-3020) because it would be easy to return it if it didn't work (stay away from the lowes cm amps, though). I started with a cm-3016 in my attic, but the size of the vhf portion made it difficult to aim. I ended up sawing off the uhf section, which I now use at work with no amp (about 30 miles out, but mounted outside on a 30'+ mast).

Does anyone know how DirecTV is picking up the signal source from the local stations (WESH 2, WKMG 6, WFTV 9, & WOFL 35) to rebroadcast via their HD MPEG4 stream? From my understanding, there is three ways to pick up the signal source and then rebroadcast it:

1) Pick up the original uncompressed signal source directly from the station before it goes through the MPEG2 encoder, encode and compress it to MPEG4, then rebroadcast

2) Pick up the original compressed source directly from the station after it goes through the MPEG2 encoder, then reencode and recompress it to MPEG4, then rebroadcast it.

3) Pick up the compressed signal source in its MPEG2 format off air, reencode and recompress it to MPEG4, then rebroadcast.

Ideally the best way would be the first because they would be compressing from the original uncompressed source instead of from an already compressed source. It would also mean that theoretically this would be the highest quality at a smaller size since MPEG4 is a higher quality and more efficient encoder.

The reason I want to know is that I have recently switched over from HR10-250s to HR20s and want to know what channels give me the highest quality and lowest disk space usage. I currently have an off air antenna attached so I have three choices:

1) Off air HD MPEG2 broadcast
2) Satellite HD MPEG4 broadcast
3) Satellite SD MPEG2 broadcast

The third option is still useful for recording SD shows since they generally take up a lot less disk space than recording them off air (since the off air broadcast is "wrapped" in an HD broadcast).

Edit: Clarified compressed vs. uncompressed sources

You cannot beat 1) Off air HD MPEG2 broadcast, it does take up more space but if you have a big screen you will see less artifacts. If you have smaller screens (non FP), then 2) would do.

BTW - I believe DTV does it this way:
Pick up the signal source directly from the station after it goes through the MPEG2 encoder, then reencode it to MPEG4, then rebroadcast it. Or maybe now the station sends its feed directly in MPEG4 to DTV sat, however I doubt that this is done as yet.

Actually 2) would be better IF DirecTV is directly picking up the uncompressed signal from the local station before it is compressed and goes through the local station's MPEG2 encoder. Since DirecTV would then use MPEG4 to compress the signal, it should theoretically be better than the off air MPEG2 signal since MPEG4 compresses at a higher rate but keeps higher quality (vs MPEG2). At least that is my understanding of it all.

Of course that is a big IF, and leads me back to my original question. Does anyone know if DirecTV is receiving an uncompressed signal from the local stations and then compressing it to MPEG4, or are they recompressing the stations MPEG2 signal (which I agree, would be worse)?

I don't see why they would be sending uncompressed signals to begin with, so I doubt that DTV would received such. It would have taken a lot more bandwidth to do so. I am sure someone will chime in with the correct information. I am just theoretically speculating based on most people's (including mine) opinion that the OTA always looks superior to DTV MPEG2 or MPEG4.

No doubt that an OTA first generation video signal, has better PQ than a re-compressed second generation satellite or cable signal.