Alexandria, LA - HDTV

Hi,

I live in Alexandria, and will be getting a Mitsu DLP soon. We will be adding Dish Network HD, and dropping Cox Cable. I was just wondering how your OTA situation is working out?

Thanks, Paul.

I think we will keep the basic cable package that Cox has for under $10 per month. I will play with OTA for our main TV for the occasional HD program. I will post our results. Any luck with either the Monroe or Lafayette stations?

The only problem with Voom is if your locals are not available OTA, it won't solve your problem with regard to HD Network programming.

OTOH, if you're just looking for a boatload of HD, especially if you're into HD movies, it's definitely worth looking into. Their precarious financial situation is a non-issue if you do not invest in their equipment. Just lease until things look a little more stable. Just my opinion. (I had Voom for about 8 months - loved it - great value.....but with 8 receivers, it was never really practical to replace D* entirely, and it got costly to maintain both services)

One more note: If you invest any significant money or effort into OTA reception, you should shoot for receiving all your digital locals (even non-HD). You don't want to have to re-assess your antenna setup every time one of your local channels upgrades to HD. If you receive their digital channel, you'll receive their HD signal when available.

I finally have everything working. I bought a Zenith Silver something antenna from Sears. I ran coax into the attic. After some trial and error, I got it positioned so that I can get KALB and KLAX digital channels without any skipping out. I even bought an antenna booster that plugs into the wall. It made reception impossible. The PBS stuff seems to work no matter how I have it. The weird thing is, KLAX'z audio sounds better than ANYTHING else, even the digital channels I have running through optical digital cable from the Dish box. I may try to run the TV sound through digital coax, but I am a bit intimidated by the prospect of changing the output setting in NETcommand on the TV.

I am now waiting to see what locals we can get through a waiver from Dish. I know I can get CBS. If we can get Fox, I can then cancel basic cable.

I just bought a HDTV and I was thinking of buying the HDTV receiver from Walmart because the only way to get HDTV is OTA. I was wondering if anyone from my Area has tried this yet. I could use the help

I can recieve NBC and LPB in HD. I get no signal at all from abc. Is anyone else having a problem picking up the digital signal from ABC?

I get the digital signal from ABC just fine. I do have to change the orientation of my antenna though. The PBS and ABC signals are on the same angle. The NBC one is significantly different. Plug in your address to antennaweb.org to see the correct angles.

That web site says I'm about 16 miles away from the ABC tower. I tried the antenna in every direction. Still no signal. I guess I will need a out door antenna to pick it up. Their broadcast over Cox is dark and the colors are off. How good is the digital picture compared to Cox?

I just move my antenna outside and I was able to pick up ABC(KLAX). I guess I will be running some wire outside. Thanks for your help PMantle.

Does anyone know when ABC and Fox will start broadcasting in HD here?

With the Zenith antenna in my attic, I can't even come close to getting Fox. The KLAX digital signal is a good bit better than the cox picture, but the sound is WAY loud. I have no idea on HD. I figure I won't ever see a Fox HD channel until Dish makes major changes to their HD offerings. I don't think we can get a Fox waiver here either.

I just got a call from Cox about a email I sent them. She setup me up to pick up a hdtv reciever from their Pineville office. She said it will be 5.80 more a month. I have a funny feeling that when I show up at their office, they wont know what I am talking about. I hope this is true. I will post more info tomorrow on how it worked out.

They have HD programming? The last time I contacted them, they said they had no time table for HD in the Alexandria market. That is why I bought the Dish Network package. Please post what you find out.

As I thought. Whoever called me made a mistake. When I went to Cox they looked at me like I was crazy. I told them she made a note and they found the note in the system. They told me they will call and find out why they called me in the first place. Once my year special is up, I may switch to Direct or Dish. As you already knew, Voom won't be around much longer.

Does anyone ever get NBC audio in 5.1 dolby? Mine always seems to just be in 2ch. I was wondering if I have something setup wrong.

It may just be because of the fog, but this morning I have a new digatil channel. 56.1 CBS from Lafayette. Getting about a constant 80% signal. No drop outs so far. I will check to see if it is still here after I get back from work. If anyone is picking this up please let me know.

I've never even tried to catch that one. It sure would be nice to get digital CBS. I am not real happy with the picture I get from Dish.

I lost the signal when I got home. I played with my antenna and was able to pick up a signal from CBS that would get video with a lot of drop outs and the sky was clear. With a bigger antenna and about 5 feet over the roof height I should be able to get a signal without much drop out at all. Too bad my wife won't go for that. I think I may try to build something that I could put up just for football Sundays when NFL season starts again.

I'm picking up CBS again. I notice that it was getting a weak signal and moved my antenna until it came in better. Picture is good without any drop outs. I hope when march madness starts I will be able to pick up a signal. It would be great to watch some college basketball in HD.

Update. I have gotten CBS all Saturday and Sunday. I have a 40inch (about from eye measurement) antenna 15ft in the air. A very old one someone has given me. It is pointed about 180˚ to the straight south. I soon as I switch to it, I was able to picked up CBS. Early this morning I was able to pick up KNOE out of Monroe. It is another CBS channel. I have lost that signal, but KLFY is still coming in with about 66% signal. I hope I will be able to keep the signal during March when CBS will air over 30 HD college basketball games for the NCAA tournament.

I have had the Dish 811 since it came out in December 2003. I too have a silver sensor in the attic with an in line signal booster attached. I can get KALB all the time, PBS if I re-orient the antenna, KLFY (56) occasionally. I have never gotten KLAX, but until they go high power on their main tower, I don't think I have much of a chance. I don't really like the sat HD from dish that much, they seem to compress the channels a lot, especially ESPN. HDNet is the only one that does not compress because of contractual agreement with DISH. I have never gotten an OTA dolby audio signal except on one of the PBS sub-channels(not the DH feed), only regular prologic 2 channel. Most of the DISH HD channels are in Dolby Digital. The OTA PBS signal seems to be compressed, as I get a lot of pixelation with fast moving images. I don't know how much of what I see is due to the 811 DISH receiver, but when Cox comes out with HD, I may switch. They said last year that it would be available in the 1st quarter of this year, but looks like that's not going to happen. There is just not enough HD programming out there.

I here you. There can never be to much hd for me. ABC is a very weak signal. The antenna has to be pointed just right. I got tired of waiting for Cox and I have the 811 HD tuner from Dish. I pick up CBS(KLFY) all the time now. During the day I may get some pixelation do to a weaker signal. I received a email from a engineer at Fox and he had no idea when they were going to go to HD or even SD. I have a one year contract with Dish but Cox will have to offer more HD then I have now for me to switch. I have to have TNT HD for Nascar later this year. Did you watch the fight on Showtime last night? It sure looked pretty good.

I have had the opposite experience with KLAX and KALB. It must be due to where my antenna is pointing. I get KLAX and PBSHD all the time, yet have to move the antenna to get KALB. I am fine with it, as I only watch PBSHD out of the three. I have not tried to get CBS, as I am only using a small antenna in the attic. When it is time for The Masters, I will try something bigger to get CBS in HD.

I will be watching the Master as well. April 9 and 10th. From what I read in the the HD thread that was started for the Masters, it looked real good last year.

Just on home and installed a pre-amp on my antenna. Signal strength went from 60 to 73 for cbs(KLFY) The ball game on right now looks great.

Does any else see a problem with the hd on nbc tonight? Its like it is missing frames.