Minneapolis, MN - OTA - Page 6

I'm looking to update the list of stations which are showing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in HD. I'm doing this for just the major markets which are not shown on the list in the Jeopardy HD thread. If I have researched the TV schedule correctly, KARE shows Jeopardy and WCCO shows Wheel of Fortune in the Minneapolis - St. Paul market. Is either station broadcasting the show in HD? Thanks.

Both are HD locally on the stations you mentioned.

Thank you for the quick reply. If my list is correct, we have stations in 16 of the top 20 DMAs showing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in HD. Pretty good numbers given that they only started providing Jeopardy in HD in September with not a lot of advance notice to the stations.

I'm in Eden Prairie, MN. I have Dish Vip622 and am using an indoor antenna.

If I connect the antenna directly to the TV, I can get all the locals (PBS, CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC and UPN). The signal quality is very good too. But if I connect the same antenna to Dish Vip622, then I never get Fox and UPN. The signal meter reading on other channes (PBS, CBS, ABC & NBC) is between 60-75.

Would it help, if I change the antenna? Is there any other suggestion to get this fixed?

Thanks

I have terrible reception on some of the local non-HDTV signals in Shakopee. In part because we are in a vally and then there is a tall plant that makes reception on channel 5 terrible. I am contemplating upgrading to a HDTV to pick up the HDTV OTA channels for better reception. Is there anyone else that has done this in Shakopee? Do you get good reception on all channels?

If all you need is better reception, just get a new SDTV. They should all have digital tuners built in now.

You'd think so, but no .

Wow, not much discussion in this thread, most recent post is a month and a half ago. I'm waiting for my antenna recommendation to come back from solid signal, but wanted to get some input from any OTA HD people locally as well.

We live in Maple Grove, just W of 494. Just slightly S of being due W from the broadcast towers in Shoreview (I used to live basically in the shadow of the towers on Lexington and 694). I have DirecTV, including both their HR10-250 HD Tivo and their own HR20 HD DVR and am getting locals via the HR20. In addition, I would like to get PBS in HD (my daughter likes to watch sesame street and while at 2yrs she won't appreciate the quality, I'd rather be watching a better picture ). Plus, I'd like to have a during the thunderstorm option of picking up locals as well as getting the weather and other sub-channels that I understand exist.

I'd prefer an attic or indoor antenna just to not have to mount something else up on the roof or in conjunction with the D* dish. I have access to the attic and need to pull an RG6 or two up there anyway so it's not a problem to pull one for an antenna too.

If anyone is still reading/replying to this thread, I'd gladly accept any advice you have to offer.

Square shooter. Mount it outside. If you have a dish, it looks close enough to one that it shouldn't bother you. My brother runs one in Big Lake, significantly farther away from the towers than MG (I think he's at 35 miles, you should be at about 20) and picks up all the locals just fine.



http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Other options you can try is an amplified yagi in the attic. The RS one that I use would be my first choice because it's dirt cheap. I think I paid $25 for it. Use a good UHF amplifier and you should be able to pick up all the locals that way too.

Heck, try a Silver Sensor. I'm in Dayton, and on a decent day I can pick up all the locals without macroblocking just plugging that thing into my HTPC.

Our cabin is in Howard Lake, MN. 50 miles from the antennae. I can get all the locals just fine with my LG LST-4200A tuner doing the hard work, but there's a massive aerial on the roof. Still... I was pleasantly surprised.

Wow, under 10 min response on a thread that's been dormant for over a month... Thanks!

You're right, I think we're <20 miles from the towers. I'll take a look at the square shooter!

Any reason not to get the SS-2000 amplified version? It's only a few $ more.

I live in Hudson and second the Square Shooter (non-amplified). I have it coming off of the DirecTV dish and it looks good. I coulld take a picture if you need to see what it looks like. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with it.

You shouldn't need the amplified version, which can sometimes makes things worse. At less than 20 miles a coat hanger will probably work. Before I put a Channel Master 4221 in my attic on Rosemount, I used an indoor Silver Sensor and got all of the channels pretty well, and I'm 30 miles or so out.

For all you need and more, check out our local forum's antenna thread

http://www.hdtvtwincities.com/forumb...pic.php?t=2136

Anyone else having problems with the NBC/KARE11 feed having weird interactions with their Beyond TV setup? It started Wednesday, with confirmed problems on Life, ER, Bionic Woman, Las Vegas, and The Office. The program will all of a sudden quit playing back normally, skipping to the end showing the "back to recordings or start playback from beginning" dialog, while the audio playback remains perfect and the video playback goes to updating a frame every second or so.

It's only on this channel, and my brother, who has a similar, but different BTV setup, is experiencing the same thing... (Diff tuner cards, diff CPU/HD/vid card, same BTV software).

yeh, i was in the process of rebuilding my mythtv box and recorded Heroes last monday (9/24) and it was all messed up... skipping parts of scenes and such.... confirmed with some friends that it was the feed, and not me. I was working on the box and had recorded Bionic Woman too and it had the same stuff. Didn't see The Office but last night Heroes seemed to be fine.

Did anyone else see 11.3 briefly come and go? It was KARE11's radar for a few days then high angle skycam shot in downtown St. Paul, then nothing. I like the weather on 11.2 but the fulltime local radar would be nice.

-Chuck

Their PQ is bad enough, no need to add another subchannel.

Anyone else having problems with 9's digital channels? I just hooked up my antenna yesterday.

All other channels are in the upper 80's and change about 2 %. The Fox 9 channels bounce from 87 to 41. the diagonostics also point out 254 errors every time it goes down to 41 percent.

I am in Ramsey (about 17miles from towers), have the Cm 4228 in the attic. I then have a 100' cable going down to my basement with an amp (from when I had Comcast) before the eight way splitter. The tuner is built it to my Sony Wega HDTV. I tried it without the amp, it was worse.

Anybody have any Ideas on how I can fix this?

Thanks,

Josh Joyce

Josh-

Have you tried bypassing the 8-way splitter and just going from the antenna to the Wega to measure how much signal is coming down the line. Then maybe add the amp in and see what that does? That might tell you how much signal you have before you try splitting it.

-Chuck

I live in Woodbury and have a Dish DVR system installed 2 years ago with an over the air HD tuner in addition to the satellite tuners. I have an in-attic mounted yagi with RG-6 coax to my basement theater room (probably 100 total ft of coax). This has worked fine since July 2004, but suddenly over the last several months my KSTP (5.1) HD reception is totally unstable with signal strength bouncing up and down from high 80's to 0/no lock every several seconds. All other channels are high 90's to 100 stable signal strength.

I have a coax coupler in line in the basement that connects the coax to the last 25 feet of cable run. If I disconnect the DVR tuner side of that coupler and let the DVR cable "dangle" disconnected, the signal drops to about 65 on the signal strength meter, but is relatively stable and the picture locks on essentially indefinitely on 5.1, but is unusable for most other HD channels.

I have tried to re-orient the yagi as much as 90 degrees from its normal direction with no effect. Any reported issues with KSTP, or is this likely to be either a local source of another competing signal or multi-path? If so, why now?

Others have reported similar problems here

http://www.hdtvtwincities.com/forumb...pic.php?t=3587

but many others have no issues like myself, so not sure what to tell you.

Hopefully somebody has the solution to this, I have the same problem. Every single channel except KMSP has a signal of 80-90%. I've followed every suggestion I've dug up for reception and am out of ideas. I'll probably contact the station next and ask that they inspect their cables for breaks. It's the only logical explanation at this point.

Nevermind. Seems that KMSP has fixed the problem on their end now. Back from the dead.

I have Directv currently and ever since the end of November all of my local channels have looked like total garbage. During any scene that isn't brightly lit I get macroblocking in the background and overall muddy images. I briefly tested the OTA broadcast one night and noticed that the image was cleaner, but the show I was watching was a 4X3 broadcast on late at night. I have not had a chance to test further.

My question is what kind of image quality is everyone seeing via antenna here in the twin cities? Was there a noticeable drop in quality within the last few months or is this a Directv specific issue? My non local directv channels look great, btw. Just the locals seem to be impacted.

I watch over the air TV in this market in Rosemount MN and it seems as if I now have an issue with KSTP 5.1 on a DISH 622 receiver. I am wondering what people in this market have found to reduce the effects of multi path distortion interference in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.

Most newer OTA tuners ignore most multipath problems. Try using your TV's tuner instead of the 622, which doesn't have the best OTA tuner out there....

Your reception may also improve when KSTP moves to channel 35 in a few months.

I live in Rosemount and use the 622 and have no issues with 5.1. What are you using for an antenna and where is it located? I've got a CM4221 in my attic.

I've got a Channel Master 4228 in my attic. I had all of the channels solid until about a week ago and then KSTP went flaky on occasion. Ironically I have a Samsung 19" LCD LNT1953H and its internal tuner gets 5 great when the 622 loses it. Well, actually it is not so ironic since it probably has a newer ATSC tuner than the 622. Does anybody have any thoughts on how to reduce the effects of MPDI? I think I read somewhere that some folks have had good results with dual antennas, but I think in Rosemount, even with a CM4228, I should be able to point in one direction and get all local channels. On a different unit in the basement I have had luck using a variable attenuator because the LG LST-3510A is pretty sensitive and attenuation help with it.

I have never, ever, ever heard the abbreviation MPDI in my life.

Anyway, I think an attenuator might be a good option to try, especially if the other stations all max out the signal meter--you have nothing to lose.

Looking at KSTP, they're doing 1000 kW on channel 50, so I'd venture to say multipath is a possibility, and an attenuator would help to knock down the signal across the board--possibly enough to alleviate the reflection problems, especially since you say it's intermittent.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

- Trip

The 622 is also very sensitive to overload (and other stuff that most new tuners ignore).