Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 7

I'm just south of Denton, and I've never had a problem getting Ch. 5-1 since I got my HD-Tivo in April. I'm using a Radio Shack antenna mounted in the attic. I checked a few weeks ago when people first started complaining, and I was still getting a signal in the low 90's.

Admittedly I am using a directional antenna (Terk 55) but regardless, rest of the OTA channels come in fine, not 5.1. Played with my 811 last night and I was never able to lock in 5.1. I t never went over 49%. Why would rest of the OTA channels broadcasting from Cedar Hill come fine but NBC won't? Very puzzling.

Is NBC the channel that is in the UHF band? I'm getting all the locals (I live in North Fort Worth), but a friend who lives further was lamenting over the fact that his [Terk] VHF band antenna does not pull in a particular channel. Maybe It's NBC?

Heading over to antennaweb.org to check it out (maybe I should have done that first).

Eric

UPDATE: I had my UHF and VHF backwards. Fixed it now.

ABC 8.1 VHF 09
FOX 4.1 UHF 35
NBC 5.1 UHF 41
CBS 11.1 UHF 19
UPN 21.1 UHF 18

So of the above 5, only ABC is in the VHF band...

Looks like Cheezmo posted close to the same as my update! Thanks Cheezmo

Nope. KXAS-DT (NBC) is on channel 41. WFAA-DT (ABC) is on 9, that is the only VHF one in our area.

ABC comes in fine (both 8.1 and 8.2) for me but that dang 5.1 (at 41) does not. Because of the number of complaints that have been posted here (and other forums) there is an issue here. I'm wondering if folks like in Saginaw (sort of the mirror image directionally of Rockwall), or Waxahachie, or even Gun Barrel City receive 5.1? Of course type of antenna has a huge impact. I'm sure if I put up one of those big honking, multi-element antennas I would pull in 5.1. But I really like the stealth look of the Terk 55. No complaints from the neighbors, homeowners associations (I know they can't do anything legally but yell), or my wife. If I can make some time this weekend, I may move my antenna temporarily and see if a change in direction helps any. Right now it is pointing squarely at an azimuth of 255 degrees. I wonder if I'm in some dead zone or edge of a lobe? Should be interesting.

Does anyone remember that "soda pop survey" where someone plotted what we call our drinks on a map? Wow, that was an easy search. Check out http://www.popvssoda.com/.

It would be cool instead of some long meandering thread of a topic of who gets which station, if we could post our coordinates and give each station a rating (0 to 5). It would be nice to get the transmit antennas on the map too. Topo info would be nice as well, but I digress...

Then we could see if a pattern developed for who gets which station.

Eric

anyone know anything for maybe helping me with my VHF reception (ABC channel 8-1)?

I have the radio shack 15-1880 amplified antenna, and it gets most all the channels well, but abc pixelates and the audio stutters at times and it annoys me. the signal strength just isn't good enough.

I live in an apartment in north plano... patio faces south...

can I add anything to boost the signal level for vhf? I've tried manipulating the 15-1880 every which way, but can't get abc's signal enough to where it will not break up occasionally.

thanks for any help!

You could add a preamplifier (I just use whatever Radio Shack had a couple of years ago). Usually takes a the form of a small "bullet" amplifier installed up by the antenna and then a power injector inside the home where it plugs in. It can be helpful to have one with adjustable gain so you can adjust the strength since sometimes the amplifier is too much, I had to turn it down a bit for best reception on my HD Tivo.

so even though the radio shack 15-1880 already has a built in adjustable amplifier, I could add another? or would that introduce too much noise perhaps also? I will try it if you think it will help.

Sorry, I didn't know that the antenna you have has a built in amp. I assume you tried adjusting it. Max gain isn't always the best.

yeah, thanks.. I sure did. I spent about 4 hours trying to tune it in to get rid of the pixelization.... tweaking on the rabbit ears and everything every which direction, and tweaking the amp. on this one, the max gain actually is the best, but still just not quite. today I grabbed one of the jensen 920's, and it's basically doing the same, so I'm probably just screwed until maybe directv starts broadcasting the locals in high def or I buy a house.. haha

I returned my RadioShack antenna with the built in amp and rabit ears in back. (screen between the uhf and vhf). Same model I think, $40 on sale.

Am now using a Silver Sensor, which works much better for me, but still not good enough. Only getting Fox35 and NBC41! My goal is to get PBS14, WB32, and FOX35, even if that takes switching between 2 antennas.

The RadioShack double bow tie was worst of three for me.

Am planning to buy a Channel Master 4221 and the 7777 preamp to see if they help. But the 4221 may not be great for multipath.

Some of the local Fry's sell the bigger Channel Master 8 bay bow tie for $50. Maybe not practical for an apartment.

I'm located in the worst possible corner of my apt building, opposite from Cedar Hill May need to spend more time instead aiming out the window, looking for a good reflection. (Am 26 miles from the towers, in Dallas a few blocks NE of the Galleria Towers.)

Hi everyone. I am a brand new HD viewer and trying to figure all of this out. The salesman I bought the tv from told me to buy any ol set of rabbit ears and I would get HD. He did not tell me it was a get some channels and not others kind of thing. So before the tv was delivered I bought some RCA amplified ears at Home Depot. When the TV was delivered I immediately hooked up the rabbit ears and turned on the Olympics and boom there it was on 5.1 and 5.2. (I still do not understand all of these channels or the DT and such) After a couple of days I realized I was getting nothing on any of the 8's. Being confused since I was told I would get everything I called my salesman and asked why I was not getting Monday Night Football or channel 4. He said to play with the rabbit ears and see if that helped. So I did that and I finally got 8 in. But then some of the others were not coming in at all or not strong and chopping up. Still no 4. I am in Midlothian, (about 12 miles from Cedar Hill) so I figured I would get everything pretty easy. I get regular channels on my son's tv very clear with a set of $10 non amplified rabbit ears.

I guess I need to know should I be getting 4 and is there something I need to do to get everything without having to play with the ears all the time?

Another thing is tonight 8 was showing up, but not very clear. Anyone else have that? Is it possible to receive it but not strong enough to be high def? I need to do some learning about high def I guess. I didn't realize how much there was to it.

which hdtv is the best?

I have the new sony

which antenna are you guys using?

HD/Digital signals are an all or nothing animal. If the signal isn't strong enough you won't get anything unlike analog signals where you will see static and ghosting.

What type of tv did you buy? Try channel 35 which is the local Fox frequency assignment per antennaweb.org Do you get Channel 8.2

Right now I seem to be getting everything except 4.1. I tried 35 but it said it was renamed 4.01. But I get nothing on it.

I have a Mitsubishi 65813.

BTW, what does "SD" and "DT" after the channel stand for?

Most television stations place their HD signal on the main channel, for example WFAA-DT main channel is 8-1. WFAA-DT places ABC News Now on channel 8-2. The sub channel is a SD or Standard Definition picture as is transmitted in the 4 x 3 format. Some stations have up to 4 sub-channels

Did anyone else have trouble with the audio portion of NBC's Hawaii last night? I could hear sounds (music, background, etc.), but no voices.

Hope this is the right place to post. Not sure if this was a regional or national issue, so I'll start here.

Thanks,

Eric

Yes, it sounds like it WAS a problem. Just found this...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...postid=4289913

I now have three tuners. One in a Mitsubishi 65513 (which recently replaced a 65511), a MyHD and a FusionHDTV. Only the latter two give signal strength. But based on these two, it seems KPXD (68.1 on 42), KFWD (51.2 on 51), and KXAS (5.1 on 41) are the weakest, from worst to best. The MyHD cannot get KPXD at all sometimes, and KFWD breaks up a lot. KXAS's signal dropped a couple of months ago. Some say it didn't for them, but for me it dropped from the mid 80%s to the mid 50%s on the MyHD (I didn't have the FusionHDTV until recently). This was enough to get occasional glitches that I wasn't seeing before. The TV's tuner is better, so I didn't see as big a problem.

But KDFW (4.1 on 35) seems to be very strong. In fact, when I set up the FusionHDTV, it found KDFW on 35 and 36. But when it tried to tune 4.1 via 36, it couldn't. I had to manually delete 36 so that it would use 35, and all was well, including 100% power. I suspect the signal was so strong it was bleeding over. I did not have the same problem with either the MyHD or Mitsubishi 65511/65513. But if you are closer than I am (east of Plano), maybe your TV is having a similar problem?

I wonder if there are actually any regulations about this. A few months ago, KERA-DT did something (I'm assuming it was maintenance) and the channel 13.1 name became something generic (I'm sorry, I can't remember what it was). After a couple of weeks, I couldn't resist sending them feedback via their web page (which is why I don't have a local copy of what I sent to tell you what it said). But when they fixed it, they put up KERA-HD instead of KERA-DT. Also, UPN21 has "Radar" for their second channel, and KPXD has "PaxWest," "Worship," and "Faith" for channels 68.2-68.4.

I'm also curious why 51 doesn't remap to virtual 52, and why they use 51.2 and not 51.1. And my various tuners all do different things with KDAF (33.x on 32), so I suspect their stream isn't quite right either.

Xesdeeni

So all of you are getting our local channel 4 (fox)on 35? Is that what I am understanding? When I put the channel on 35 I had a on screen message that said "35 was renamed 4.1" I never got either to come in. Although I did not try moving the ears any. I will work on that this evening.

KTVT has a nice color bars test pattern running tonight on 11-2. Better than the HDNet one for setting color/tint. But there doesn't appear to be blacker than black in the pluge.

You should be able to set your STB to upconvert 11-2 to 1080i (since is is an SD broadcast) and use your Avia or Video Essentials blue filter to set your color/tint.

If you have a DirecTiVO or DVHS VCR, record it so you can use it later if you get a new display or hook things up differently.

Well I finally got 4.1 to come in. To do this I had to tun the control on my ears all the way down to point it was about to click off. Not only did 4.1 appear, but all the channels are there and has the best reception I have seen. I guess I am too close to Cedar Hill and had too much amplification. I am a happy HD viewer now! Can't wait for real Monday Night Football.

Ok, I've been lazy finding out what the cause of this is but now that new seasons are upon us I want my NBC in HD! I have a MyHD card in my pc hooked upto a 38" monivision hdtv monitor. I have reinstalled the card with the newest drivers and software but during searches it still can not find NBC HD. Does anyone know the true number for the channel. Perhaps I can enter it manually. I used to get 80% or so for this channel but no more! All other channels are working great.

KXAS-DT is at 41.

Anyone in the Wylie area using any indoor antenna?? I use to live in Dallas around Preston and Beltline and had a horrible time picking up stations. Now that I'm further out away from the buildings, I'm wondering if I would have better luck???

I want local HDTV, but Starpower(whi sucks) tells me I need all sorts of expensive work to move my dish from my attic outside. I had a metal roof installed and it screws up the old signal.

They tell me I am 30+ miles from the HDTV antenna, need a powered antenna, specially insalled, blah blah.

Any suggestions?


BTW, Starpower sucks.

You got that right!

Spent over $100k with Starpower a couple years ago. I regret about $75k of that. They tell me I needed to spend about $1000 to get my HDTV back up again. They send over one decent guy and one total idiot. They charge $135+ an hour.