Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 204

Originally Posted by K5ING

I'm confused. If you're getting stations like 5, 8, 33, etc., you should be getting the subchannels as well. Are you sure you're scanning on the antenna and not just what Dish is giving you? I get over 50 OTA channels up here (between Denton and Decatur) including the LP Ch. 31's. With you at Cedar Hill, you should get everything with as little as a bent coat hanger for an antenna.

Originally Posted by K5ING

My point is that if you didn't get the subchannels on a station that has them, then your settings are not correct. You can't, for example, get 8 without also getting 8.2 and 8.3. If you get one, you get them all.

Are you sure you don't have the Spanish channels deleted or something? Almost every television station in Dallas broadcasts from Cedar Hill. There is no reason why you would get 14 English speaking stations and no Spanish stations unless your tuner card is set up that way. Do a rescan and set it to show everything.

BTW, what is D*TV?

Originally Posted by maverick22

Well, just using Media Center and the "dead coax" since Time Warner must have removed their "signal" when I disconnected, I have scanned and scanned. Yeah it's weird how I don't get all subchannels OR Spanish channels. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing when I'm scanning. Maybe there's something I'm doing wrong. I don't know what all the digital qam clear is or whatever.

Now with the small antenna hooked up (instead of the "dead coax") and Media Center I do get all subchannels AND Spanish channels.

Originally Posted by bernie33

I don't recall you saying what internet service you use. If you use TWC for internet access, then your coax isn't really dead - and you can receive the non-encrypted, analog channels between 1 and 99.

Originally Posted by coyoteaz

Depending on the filter on the line, you might receive some of the clear QAM channels but not others.

Originally Posted by coyoteaz

Analog is analog. The channels will normally just be a number, like 4 or 31. Clear QAM is digital. The channel numbers will have a . or - in them, like 4.1 or 103.6. The local broadcast channels are carried on clear QAM on TWC, mostly on channels 104 through 110, and mapping back to their familiar channel number (4.1, 5.1, 8.1, etc.). You should be able to find 5.2, 5.3, 8.2, 8.3, and 13.2, but the other subchannels either aren't mapped or aren't carried at all so you won't find them without some digging.

Originally Posted by maverick22

Thanks. So I guess NO analog channels will be in HD?? I just don't know why my PC tuner won't get the subchannels/Spanish channels without an antenna when the same coax is active for Internet??

Does that have to do with the user asking about the filter?

Originally Posted by coyoteaz

Analog is analog. The channels will normally just be a number, like 4 or 31. Clear QAM is digital. The channel numbers will have a . or - in them, like 4.1 or 103.6. The local broadcast channels are carried on clear QAM on TWC, mostly on channels 104 through 110, and mapping back to their familiar channel number (4.1, 5.1, 8.1, etc.). You should be able to find 5.2, 5.3, 8.2, 8.3, and 13.2, but the other subchannels either aren't mapped or aren't carried at all so you won't find them without some digging.

Originally Posted by kevin120

TWC also now using 27 (243MHz) 23.1 KUVN HD, KSTR 49.1 HD and KFWD HD 52.1 , and 81-1 KXTX HD (567MHz) for local HD channels too

Originally Posted by K5ING

First of all, there are only a couple of analog channels, all low power infomercial stuff, that are left. Everything else is digital. And no, analog channels are not capable of broadcasting in HD.

Second, the reason you can get all of the channels with the antenna is that these stations are broadcasting OTA (over the air). When you hook up to the cable, you will only get the stations that TW or the cable company carries. Just like you need an antenna on your car to pick up locally broadcast AM/FM radio stations. It's the same thing.

I really don't know how to explain it any simpler than that.

Due to the recent cold weather and snow, the conversion has been delayed until Monday, January 17 at 12 noon.

Originally Posted by maverick22

My TWC coax appears to be not working though since I cancelled and switched to D*TV. Should I still get those channels you just listed b/c my Internet uses that same coax with TWC?

thanks

Originally Posted by JHBrandt

When you canceled TWC TV they probably put a filter on to block anything except Internet. But the filter may not be perfect and some TV stations may still get through. Based on the station list you provided, I think that's what's happening.

Also, cable is different than over-the-air. OTA digital broadcasts use a different modulation scheme than digital cable, as well as different frequencies. And every TV station (except one low-power station you won't care about) is now broadcasting OTA in digital. I don't have cable, but TWC probably broadcasts several local stations in both analog and digital.

If you unhook the TWC cable and hook up an antenna, you'll have to set your tuner to receive OTA rather than cable for it to scan the right frequencies and make sense of the digital broadcasts it's receiving.

Based on your location in Cedar Hill, a simple rabbit-ears-plus-loop combo antenna should work fine. The rabbit ears are for WFAA/8 and KFWD/52, which broadcast on VHF frequencies, and the loop is for the other stations, all of which broadcast on UHF frequencies.

Each OTA broadcast is all-or-nothing. So, for instance, you'll either receive all three subchannels for WFAA/8, or none of them. This is different from cable, which may not transmit all the subchannels, and may either keep them on one frequency or reorganize them onto different frequencies any way TWC sees fit.

HTH

Originally Posted by maverick22

I do have a small antenna that came with a new tuner I bought (from hauppauge.com)

Originally Posted by re_nelson

If you don't mind my asking (and this is absolutely not intended to be inflammatory), do you have an objection to using an antenna with your tuner? All things being equal, does connecting it to the TWC outlet seem more appealing in contrast?

The reason I bring this up is that I've found my attempts to persuade friends, neighbors and colleagues to "cut the cord" and go with an over-the-air setup is often met with "Eeewwww, I hate those ugly antennas". Even small antennas (like the Terk HDTVa or the Clearstream models from AntennasDirect) are perceived as big, ugly, old fashioned and something appropriate only for Fred Flintstone's dwelling.

By the very nature of this forum, there's typically NOT that reaction since the self-selected participants are largely male and tech-oriented. We're all aware of (and possibly have to deal with) the "wife acceptance factor". What a good number of us find intriguing on the roof of a house (as is the 91XG pictured here) is found to be downright gruesome to some, limiting the "curb appeal" of the home.

Originally Posted by maverick22

I don't even mind buying the old rabbit ears and hooking that up to my PC. She would prefer the smaller antenna shown above though.

Originally Posted by K5ING

I think that sometimes we forget that younger people today have never experienced OTA television. TV has always come in on a cable, and that's just the way it is. I know of some younger (early 20's) people who didn't even know what OTA television was, or that there was such a thing. I'm flabbergasted, of course, but it's similar to if we were suddenly confronted with having to drive a Model T and have to manually adjust the choke, spark advance, hand cranking and driving a planetary transmission with a hand throttle. Even though we've driven cars all of our lives (and I'm 56), we'd have a hell of a time trying to get it going, but at one time, it was common knowledge.

Originally Posted by nukeboy67

I've had OTA since I was born. (1994).

Originally Posted by Trip in VA


Whoa, there's someone on here younger than I am. (1988) Am I now allowed to start feeling old?

And same story for me, OTA since I was born.

- Trip

Originally Posted by nukeboy67

I've had OTA since I was born. (1994).

Originally Posted by re_nelson

Here's the KTXA/KTVT antenna being put into place last month: