Milwaukee, WI - HDTV - Page 5

After getting fed up with TWC and paying around $100.00 per month to use their HD box, got rid of their service. Have a 3 yr. old JVC HD ready 31" TV, and got a new digital HDTV tuner box off EBay for under $100.00, the cost for one month of TWC. Picked up a $20.00 outdoor antenna, have it temporarily on a pole in an umbrella stand on my patio. Surprised what reception I am getting and enjoy 21 FREE digital channels and the HD broadcasts are better than cable from my Bay view Milwaukee location.
Do miss a few programs that are not offered OTA, but can live without them.
Have just received new channels 52-1, -2, -3, -4, -5 and -6 this week while scanning my set top digital HD receiver. They seem to be all Christian Based digital television stations, and seem to be on the air in the evenings only. Not into Christian TV, but was surprised to see all the new channels available now. Have also turned my antenna east and have picked up TV from Lower Michigan. Hoping that there will be allot more OTA digital channels available in the near future. Wait till 2008 ends analog and makes digital primary.

If you have a TV with digital HD tuner in it, thats all you need. Just get yourself a cheep antenna rated at 30 to 50 mile range and hook it up to your tv. Digital locals and the network HD broadcasts will amaze you. Not all programs are in digital HD, but all digital. You will get HD clear as a bell and better than cable, and with some dish type systems, you still will have to use an antenna and Over The Air (OTA) set up on your tv to get the locals.
You will get ABC, CBS HD (not always HD programs), NBC and PBS 36 in HD most of the time. You will get 4-1 WTMJ, 4-2 Weather +, 6-1 WITI, 10-1 thru 10-7 PBS stations, 12-1 WISN, 18-1, 24-1, 30-1, 36-1 PBS HD, 52-1 thru52-5 Christian stations, 55-1 ION Television, 55-1 thru 55-4, 58-1 WDJT CBS HD and 58-2 WMLW.
Try this out before you get dish or anything else. You might want to just watch FREE TV!

Since you are in Oak Creek you can get a small antenna. all of your Milwaukee station antenna farm is on the north side in Shorewood in area of Captial Dr and Milwaukee river and all station use UHF channel for Digital broadcast expect for PBS 10 use VHF-hi channel 8. I currently live 43 miles away from Milwaukee and I use a homebuilt 2 bay bow tie UHF antenna and I have it mounted indoor and I even get PBS 10 which is on 8 for the Digital 10 with no problem. The best thing with OTA is it free no monthly payment. Since the satllite and Cable box is connected by compontent or HDMI cable use that to TV set and hook up the OTA antenna to antenna/cable input to get OTA SD & HD local stations. Picture quality for local station would be much better with OTA than Cable or Satllite and you have more choices of local with OTA. IF you can find a Channel Master antenna 4220 it a 2 bay antenna but will work fine for VHF-hi PBS. If you live in a house and can put roof mount antenna. I would get a bigger antenna and rotor to get Chicago station those station antenna is atop of Hancock and Sears building. I also pickup Madison, Rockford, IL and some Chicago station with my small antenna.

I just bought an HDTV (Westinghouse LCD). I only have basic cable right now through Time Warner. I use the Autoscan to find the channels and I am only getting TMJ4 and My24 in HD is this normal or should I be getting more? I thought you would get all local channels in HD.

I live just north of Milwaukee in Mequon and am curious to know which service provider you all use? I use TW but am unimpressed with their SD content and small selection of HD channels. Has anyone had any luck with Dish Network or Direct TV? I have a Pioneer PDP-5080HD plasma TV and am looking for the provider with the best picture quality for HD and SD. For HD content amount Direct TV would be the logical choice, but there are numerous complaints all across AVS about their PQ. Verizon Fios is not yet available here, so what do you all recommend? Should I stay with TW or is there someone with better PQ all the way around?

Thanks!

I have directv get all local in hd but CBS WDJT anyone know what hold up is for them to add it to directv hd were I live atenna wont help much picture always real bad just waiting now for all the new hd channels to launch this fall
bob

I don't know why people even bother posting in this thread. No one ever answers anyone's questions. What a waste! I guess our fellow Milwaukee folks are too busy, don't frequent these forums often or just don't care.

Yes it bad look what # post you are at. I would like to help you but I am not a big fan of Sat or Cable. I use OTA for HD programing I get Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee and Rockford OTA market. Are you looking for HD of local station or looking for HD of Sat or Cable. OTA HD of local station will blow the HD PQ on the Sat and Cable. You can hook up OTA to your tv antenna imput to get HD local and still have Sat or Cable on different video input as in HDMI or compoent connections on back of the TV and just change your input on your remote. Best of all the OTA HD is free and better PQ than Cable or Sat.

-Willie

Or it's entirely possible that most Milwaukee folks visit the "other" Milwaukee forum. AVS is an excellent forum but most people join milwaukeehdtv dot org.

all, i've searched the thread and been unable to fidn the info I am looking for

Does Time Warner Cable (TWC) leave their HD feeds unscarambled? Can a QAM tuner pick them up? If so, is there a list of channels that they can be found on... thanks.

I get the off the air signals from Rabbit ears now but am thinking of getting either TWC, Dish Network or Directtv HD service.

Whats the best choice.

Its going into a 52" in 1080p Sharp TV


Thanks,

Based on all the new content soon to be available, I think Directv would be the best choice for the next year or so until others catch up, assuming you don't mind missing cbs or you can get it ota.

I don't think many know this Milwaukee-centric thread exists, and those that do probably don't feel the need to visit often once they have their hd service sorted out. Unlike the ginormous threads devoted to av gear.

Good point. And thanks for your comments.

TW should be introducing IPTV soon. Don't know about the rollout dates but it looks promising.

OTA is your best choice. When the signal is handed off to a 3rd party you can run into compression/bandwidth problems. OTA is as virgin as you can get the signal.

I'm using a Terk TV-55 antenna mounted to my chimney. It's at least 6' higher than the top of the chimney, and most stations come in fine without turning on the onboard preamp via the power injector. I have a Samsung TV with a built in HDTV tuner that seems to work ok for all the stations, there are issues with Channels 18 and 6 HD sometimes. I recently got a HDHomeRun network digital tuner, and it has the ability to monitor not just signal strength like the TV, but also two other levels, that indicate the noise on the signal being received.

For Channel 6 I get no signal strength at all on the device unless I turn on the preamp on the antenna. But when I turn on the preamp the signal quality drops 2 bars on all the other stations I think that means 20%.
Which makes a couple of the stations that were good become marginal, more signal dropout.

I looked at the maps of the TV stations antenna at www.2150.com and noticed that TV6 has a much more focused spread then the others, which is probably the problem.

I tried turning the antenna, and I found that I can't point it the direction I thought it should be pointing, but instead it is turned a bit north... Instead of pointing E-SE (mostly east) It's pointing E-NE.

Ok, now for the questions..
1) IS channel 6 going to beef up their transmitter, and have the broadcast be more widespread?
2) Would getting a ChannelMaster or Winegard preamp introduce less noise to the signal.. Keeping in mind that I'd rather not have to preamp, since the only station that is helped by the preamp is CH6, all the others are hurt by the preamp.

Thank you,

First things first need your location and will start with that.
Fox 6 is I believe at full power.

Live 40 miles from transmitter have No issues here with Fox 6

Found some bad reviews for that antenna on Newegg.......
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...mx&ATT=product

I like this response from the review....."get an ugly antenna that works"

None of the local Milwaukee area stations should be impossible to get provided you are in their coverage area (& with the right receiving equipment). Again, your location is not known.

IPTV sounds interesting, but all I care about is HD, and I think many people would agree with me. TW just raised their rates without telling many customers, too. If they don't offer at least 20-30 more HD channels by December, I am switching to D*.

Sorry, I thought I posted my location in the original message...

I'm very close to the antennas at 8-12 miles zip 53051 Menomonee Falls.

And with the HDHomeRun I get No signal at all for Channel 6 without the preamp turned on.

As far as ugly antenna.. I'm the only house in my subdivision with an antenna, and the subdivision committee has gotten on peoples cases for much less than an antenna on the roof

Thanks for the responses.

Bill

Subdivision committees & associations cannot stop you from putting an antenna on the roof regardless of what they say....FCC rules.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/consumerdish.html

HD seems to be the focus. AT&T offers 28 now with more to come. The equipment the ship out too is HD ready.

I took a look at AT&T's U-verse, but many people (especially on this forum) have said that their HD quality is poorer than TW's, however the SD quality is better. I think I would rather have very good HD.

Does anyone with Direct TV in the Milwaukee area know which local channels Direct TV offers in HD? They are installing tomorrow and I am getting mixed responses from Direct TV employees. I have heard that they don't offer CBS from some people, but the person I talked to when I signed up assured me D* offered CBS in HD. I'll be upset if they don't.

Thanks!

If you go to their website and do a search for local channels for the Milwaukee area they list ABC, NBC, & FOX. From what I have read on another Milwaukee forum CBS is not offered. If you get a Direct TV receiver with the built in ATSC tuner you should be able to receive it OTA.

Thank you jimboy.

I have heard that CBS 58 is holding out on letting D TV carry them. I've also heard that if your getting a DVR box (I think it's the HA20 - the new one is HA 21 I think, don't quote me on this) that the HA20 allowed you to connect an OTA antenna to it, but the new HA21 will not. So you won't be able to record CBS on your DVR. If your in the Milwaukee area, check out the forums at milwaukeehdtv dot org. They are a lot more active than this thread.

Nick -

Thank for the tips buddy. I did discover that the HR21 doesn't have the OTA tuners. In fact, my "brand new" HR21 has a bad tuner #1. I'll have to settle for a refurb replacement now, but at least it'll be an HR20 (so I can hook up that antenna and record CBS). I just hope it works!

Just purchased a WinTV-HVR-1600, looking for advice on a nice antenna for oak creek, wi. Already have cables ran to top of the house as I had directv @ one point