Orlando, FL - OTA - Page 6

Some other stuff worth mention since my last update on the DTs in Central Florida.

The UCF channel has now started on 30.2. More info can be found here:
http://reach.ucf.edu/~itr/ITR_Revise...04_Vol_9_4.pdf

or you can email wdotson@mail.ucf.edu for more info on UCF digital TV.

FKN Florida Knowledge Net on 30.3 http://www.wbcctv.org/ and 33.3 www.wceu.org now carries the Florida Lotto drawings live.
WRBW also carries the drawings but most of the time they don't carry them live or at all if they are having problems.

Info on the new sub channel service ABC News Now channel can be found here:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/AB...bindex.html#fl

They have been adding new stations to the list all day today. They started today with 4 stations and now have dozens listed.

Do any of you leave your PACE box on when you turn your TV off? The directions "strongly recommend" that you set the remote to turn the box off when it turns the TV off. But having it set up this way, sometimes the TV gets the signal and the box doesn't, throwing off the sync; and I have to go and manually turn one off.

Is it safe to leave the box on all of the time?

Feel free to leave the PACE box on. It doesn't use any more power in the ON or OFF state. In fact, it helps to leave it on when trying to work with remote control macros, as there are no discrete on and off codes for that box *COUGH*Greg*COUGH*

The only time you'd have to turn the box on is after a power failure.

Regards,

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

Thanks a lot for all your responses directed at my concerns. I appreciate it. I will look into the cable modem issues, that's really what's holding me up right now. Oh and the fact that I'll be moving from my apt by spring 05, but we'll see, can't keep putting it off for those 2 reasons. Thanks again.

Anybody have any luck getting a SA 3250 from BrightHouse with Firewire outputs? They have been giving me the run around for the past 2 weeks, and i am about to send off a letter to their local office, their headquarters, and the FCC stating that they are in direct violation of the FCC's mandate. Any of you guys have any luck?

I had one for about a month here in Orlando before I switched to DirectTv about a few weeks ago.

I just called customer service and told them I wanted to get one of their HD boxes that had the firewire ports. The girl put me on hold for about 5 minutes then came back and said they could schedule an install the following week as you cannot pick them up at the office.

You're not really missing anything though. There was no sound or picture improvement over the one that had to use component hookup. Also, when going through the firewire port, the only channels that work are the HD ones. You have to switch to the composite input to see the rest of the channels on your TV.

It was a pain switching back and forth and I ended up never watching the HD channels.

with the box i have now, i have to switch to a different input (component) to watch the HD channels, as the SD channels dont show up on component output. Does the PACE boxes do that also?

jayfl,

He does monitor it. And if you really want one of the 1394 boxes, just PM me and I'll have somebody contact you.

But I don't understand which of our boxes you might have that don't do SD over component. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post.

Got my replacement antenna from Winegard today and went into the flaming attic to swap it in. Indeed the VHF portion of the antenna had failed. WESH is back again, Yeah!!

Glad to hear you're back in business! That VHF band is the most common issue I come across with antennas.

Regards,

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

Is anyone having any success picking up Tampa stations consistentlyfrom the Orlando/Central Florida area? If so, what part of Orlando/Central Florida do you live in and what antenna/configuration are you using?

I live in South Orlando by Sea World and want to see whether or not its even worth the effort and expense. I currently have a Silver Sensor that is picking up all the "main" stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB, UPN, & PBS) with no problem, but I'm looking to possibly upgrading to a ChannelMaster 4228 so that I can pick up stations from Tampa. I think Jacksonville and West Palm Beach are probably too far away to even attempt to pick anything up from them.

My main reason for doing this is so that I have more variety and choice in NFL football games on Sundays this fall, so my main interest are the FOX and CBS stations. Antennaweb unfortuantely does not provide much info because it seems it does not show you anything over 60 miles away. I know Sunday NFL Ticket is an option, but I'd rather put the money I could put into NFL Ticket into an antenna that would last me more than just one season and get me more programming than just NFL ticket...

BTW, anyone think Sea World would let me put an antenna on top of their tower??

Ok so the analog signals travel farther than the digital ones? Is it because in general broadcasters have thier analog towers at higher power than their digital ones? If so would this situation change once the stations switch to just digital broadcasts in a few years and pump up the power on their towers that are transmitting digitally?

I do receive some of the Tampa stations via analog, although most are a bit snowy. I was thinking that since I received some of the signal on these stations via analog, that I might get enough of the signal to pull the station in digitally. I also was thinking that a bigger and better antenna may improve my chances.

I am aware that the analog and digital signals are not always broadcast from the same tower, so getting an analog station may not necessarily mean you receive its digital counterpart, but it did show me that I was getting something from Tampa. In fact I know one of the stations (I think NBC) I get better in analog from Tampa than I do from Orlando!

This is a bit of a tangent, but the reason you get the NBC station better from Tampa is because WESH actually broadcasts out of Daytona beach not Orlando.

Not sure if anyone posted this, I saw mention of some of the new signals on 2.2 for the DMC but i found this on rogersimmons.com and found it interesting that WFTV has finally seen the light!

Digital News | 9 to air 24/7 news channel
July 24 -- WFTV-Channel 9 has signed up to carry ABC's new 24-hour digital news channel, ABC News Now.

Beginning at noon on Monday and running through Election Day on Nov. 2, WFTV and ABC will provide a 24/7 news service transmitted over WFTV-DT.

The vision for informal and unharnessed news reporting that is not regularly offered through traditional broadcast outlets. This includes live events and major breaking news around the world, as well as hourly updates. "We are excited to be the first station in the area to offer a second tier of live news and information programming to Central Florida," said Bill Hoffman, WFTV's vice president and GM. In Central Florida, viewers will be able to view ABC News Now on WFTV's secondary digital channel.

This service will only be available to viewers who have digital over-the-air receivers or cable subscribers with high definition digital packages.

Over the air WFTV-DT broadcasts its secondary signal on Channel 9-2; on Brighthouse digital the programming will be shown on Channel 1091.

Thirty-five other ABC affiliates have already signed up to carry the service, and more are expected to do so before Monday.

Meanwhile, WESH and NBC are teaming up to offer a local weather and entertainment digital channel later this year.

I am completely new to all of this stuff. I recentely moved to Winter Garden and also recently bought a Samsung 50" DLP and Directv with the hd receiver. I didn't know that I couldn't get local HD with the dish. I have been reading these boards trying to learn all about OTA antennas and reception and all of that stuff. However, I still do not know what antenna to buy. I tried looking at the chart and was not sure what I was looking at. I looked in bestbuy.com, etc. and there are rabit ears up to big free standing antennas. Can anyone recommend an antenna, a type, brand, etc and where the best place is to get one, how much they run for what I need, do I need an amp, etc? Also, is it better to have someone install it or is it easy to put up yourself?
Thanks for the help in advance. I appreciate it greatly.
Frank

I can only offer my own experience. I'm in South Orlando, just south of Sea World. I tried a couple of different antenna configurations and ended up with differing results. The one I finally chose was the Winegard MS2000.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/urban.htm#2000

Some of the attributes that I liked about it that have worked well:

- It's an omnidirectional antenna which resolved the issue with the WESH antenna being at a slightly different angle from me than most of the others. With the previous Terk TV36 that I had (recommended by Sound Advice BTW) I had to give up a lot of other stations to get WESH(2) or give that one up to get the rest; obviously not the best option
- Since it's a VHF/UHF antenna it allowed me to get WESH as well since it broadcasts it's Digital signal in VHF, while all of the others are on UHF stations.
- It was small enough to install it inside my attic (this was a big one for me) up at the peak of the roofline above the garage. I just bought a satellite dish mount, attached that to the truss and put the antenna right up on top of it.
- It is a powered antenna with an integrated amplifier which extends the distance this particular model supports over the MS1000 which is not powered and has a smaller coverage area in terms of distance from the signal source.

From a support standpoint, I did have a failure of the VHF portion of the antenna a little bit ago, but I contacted them via email and they sent me a replacement within a couple of days. An excellent customer service experience.

While there are a lot of sources out there to purchase, in my case I bought it from Summit Source ( http://www.summitsource.com/Merchant...ct_Code=ANW201 ) for $89.95 for the antenna and $14.95 for the mounting kit.

I'm sure there are others with positive and negative experiences with multiple different antenna's but this one works very well for me.

Frank,

I have had good luck in your area with the Channel Master Stealth antenna coupled with an AP series preamp from Winegard. Even in an attic, digitals have so much error correction multipath and the fact that there is 5 or so degrees difference between the transmitters has not been an issue. Just as an example, I was getting around -20dB at the antenna and had no PQ issues. The key is pointing the antenna and making sure you know which direction of the antenna really needs to point (it should look like it is pointing away from the transmitter, on other words the open end goes toward the transmitter as if its catching the signal.)


Terk antennas stink. Sound Advice recommends them out of laziness because they don't deal with the other quality antenna vendors such as Winegard and Channel Master (Andrews.) Since they do a lot of business with T2 products (a subsidiary of Terk) that is what happens.

Don't EVER buy Terk antennas!

Peter,

Oh sure, now you tell me that.

I'll admit it, I was a newbie to HDTV and far too anxious to get the functionality up and running when I got the new TV to do the proper amount of homework and I ended up paying for it . The result was one bad antenna purchase, followed by a good one. The Terk model they sold me was really sensitive to the location difference between WESH and the others which was really annoying and obviously because of it's shape wasn't going to get up between the trusses in the attic.

I suppose I should learn a lesson to do the homework next time, but I fear I will not.

I also live in South Orlando near Sea World and get all of the major channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB, PBS, and PAX) with the Zenith Silver Sensor UHF antenna in my attic. It is attached to an RCA 25db amplifier next to it.

I get all channels with signal strengths in the 90s, except for the PAX channel, which is in the 80s (probably because it is not at the same angle as the rest of the towers) and NBC (WESH), which is in the 70s. WESH NBC is broadcasting in the VHF range so the Silver Sensor shouldn't even pick it up, but myself and others have had success picking up upper stations in the VHF range with it.

You can buy the Silver Sensor for $40 at Sears (only place I found it locally) and even cheaper online. The amplifier I bought at Home Depot for $35. The antenna is tiny compared to other antennas and many people have success using it indoors somewhere around their entertainment center. It is worth every penny in my opinion.

Peter, do you know if the Silver Sensor (which has a similar shape to the Stealth antenna) should also "point" away from the transmitters? I think I may go up into my attic and turn it around and see what happens.

I am not familiar with that antenna. If everything works I would not mess with it. Also, when you see those signals strengths at the receiver it reads so well because you are using a 25dB amp. Either way, if its working, I would not mess with it.

Anybody here have experience with the Winegard Square Shooter antenna? I'm looking for an "aesthetically-pleasing" outside antenna solution to pick up HD locals from Orlando. I'm in Port Orange, about 35-40 miles from the Bithlo towers (according to antennaweb.org).

Is the Zenith Silver Sensor a "Small Multidirectional Antenna?" Is it in the yellow category from Antennaweb.org? Thanks.

The Silver Sensors is a small (indoor) antenna, but from my experience and what I have read about it, it is highly directional, not multi directional. Its actually part of what makes it so good.

I have voom and i'm having a problem with my OTA stations. Basically i'm getting the NBC affiliate on all the OTA channels. For example on 6.1, 9.1, etc i see what ever is on 2.1.

Does anyone know why this would be happening? Is there something i can do to fix it or do i need to get a tech out?

Thanks!

On the VOOM board on Sat Guys, a new software download has or is occurring to upgrade the STB software to version 6.10, I think. You may want to check that board.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/index.php

If you got the new software for VOOM, do the scan. Mine worked just fine.

I do have the new software. I went in a did the scan under the installers menu. However I'm still having the same problem. Any other ideas? I might have to get a tech out here to fix it.