Dallas, TX - HDTV - Page 225

Why so bummed? What could you possibly be missing on 27?

I live in an apartment near Frankford Rd. and the Tollway just north of Addison and just ordered the Channel Master CM4228. I'm hoping I can use this indoors and still get all the other channels. I can live without 27 and the religious channel.

Channel Master CM4228 is a UHF antenna. It will probably pick up 27 fine. You will likely have problems with Ch 8 on VHF.

I have had the same problem with 11.1 for the last few weeks on my 7WMC. I was just able to fix the issue by going to Tasks->Settings->Guide->Edit Channels->11.1->Edit Sources.

I have three tuners, but there were 6 entries. Three entries show Channel Number:19.1 and three show 11.1. I disabled the three 11.1 entries and Saved the sources and then the channel. It now works live.

I also lost 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3, but they are back now.

I rescanned my digital converter box and it now shows 5-2 as COZI.

A problem remaining - my LG tv's TVGOS program information shows some programs as closed captioned. I have not been able to get cc on COZI on the tv's or converter box. Anybody else?

Officially, yes. Unofficially, it actually works rather well on channel 8. Not great, but better than rabbit ears

And it's come to pass. A week or two ago I saw a Dyle TV ad on WFAA 8.2. So I rescanned for M/H and sure enough, nothing. (My portable TV did detect Qubo on M/H channel 68.1 but wouldn't play it, even though KPXD/68's ATSC signal strength is fine, so I'm guessing they're encrypted too.)

Personally I don't think Dyle is going to succeed. Their devices are M/H only, not ATSC; even if you're perfectly still, you can only get the handful of M/H channels. The antennas are far too small for VHF signals like WFAA unless you're right on top of Cedar Hill. And M/H resolution is noticeably poorer than SD, even though the latest cell phone displays have near-HD resolution. The first cell phone that dares to include a true ATSC tuner and a stand (so you can sit the phone still in front of you) will blow Dyle away.

And finally, all unencrypted M/H receivers have been rendered useless. All this so broadcasters could find a way to charge someone for their free content. Way to go, folks; your greed has managed to kill yet another promising technology (cf. HD radio).

At least my 7" RCA is still a good ATSC TV, battery-operated for emergencies. BTW RCA is now selling my TV for $29 off, probably due to the lack of any M/H signals to receive. Weirdly, they're selling the 3.5" M/H+ATSC sets for the same price ($160), but also selling 3.5" ATSC-only units for $79! I could see paying $160 for the bigger screen, but there's no longer a reason to pay extra just for M/H capability.

The CM4228HD is designed for UHF but in many situations can also pick up HiVHF. While I prefer most of the original Channel Master products, this newer version of the 4228 is nevertheless a good antenna.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is "M/H"?

A friend who was over the other day had his iPhone out (I am still in the desktop computer age) and I asked if he's looked into Dyle that's being heavily advertised on 5 and 8. Nope. So we looked at Amazon. Expensive little buggers, and reviews are definitely hit or miss reception. Plus I read they are to start charging for the service at the end of 2013.

And today it's "Almavision" Spanish religious programming. That was a quick here and gone!

That may work on 7 but not WMC on vista. When in Edit Channels I can't "enter the correct channel number" despite WMC indicating I should be able to. WMC (who gets guide info from Zap2It as I understand) lists KTVTDT (Special Temporary Authority) which I surmise to be the STA they had from the FCC until they shut off that transmitter at the switchover. As best I can tell WMC doesn't know to quit looking at the STA. As I noted earlier I can't force it to add 11.1 because it says I already have an 11.1 and I can't seem to delete the STA (I can remove it from the Guide, but WMC still considers it as a scanned channel just doesn't list it in the Guide. This is driving me nuts.

Now PunchTV is on 28.1 KHPK.

No captions on COZI here either. I checked some of the other channels, 31.4 RTV (yes), 31.3 HOT (no), 47.4 MeTV (yes), 28.1 PunchTV (no), 33.2 AntennaTV (no), 33.3 This (yes) .

So it seems "CC" to be about 50/50 on these stations. Likely nothing wrong with your sets.

Okay, I was doing some channel surfing and got to COZI during a commercial. I was getting closed captioning on the commercial. Later watching a program on COZI that was supposed to be CC ( but wasn't) the same commercial was. So maybe only some of their commercials will be CC.

Sorry, I sometimes use acronyms without explaining them. M/H stands for Mobile/Hand-held. It's a low-definition TV service (sort of like MediaFLO) for mobile devices like car "back seat" receivers and cell phones. From the consumer's standpoint, the advantage of these services is that unlike ordinary ATSC channels, you don't have to keep the antenna still to receive them, so you can watch/listen while walking, jogging, etc. (You could probably get WFAA's Dyle service OK with a 30" whip antenna, but that'd be rather awkward to walk/jog with ) Or, kids can watch Qubo in the back seat of the family car while being driven around town.

From the broadcaster's viewpoint its advantage is that M/H can piggyback on their existing 8VSB transmission, whereas MediaFLO is broadcast by another company so the broadcaster has to contract that service out. But MediaFLO's been around a lot longer, and I think it has both more devices and more video choices. Plus, MediaFLO is pure UHF, so there'd be no issue receiving WFAA

So they blocked our unencrypted M/H devices after a few months; now if we shell out for an overpriced Dyle device, they'll block that too after another year, unless we shell out some more. I think my comparison to HD radio was too unkind - to HD radio! At least the latter's free - once you buy the receiver and kludge a circularly-polarized antenna so it'll work reliably

When M/H was first standardized, I expected simulcasts of the regular ATSC channels to be free, but that the broadcasters would make other content available by paid subscription. RCA sold quite a few ATSC+unencrypted M/H "hybrid" devices based on the same expectation, including the one I bought. But few broadcasters have jumped on the M/H bandwagon, and now those few have apparently all decided to charge for a lower-quality version of their free content For my money, forget it. I'll just sit the damn TV still and watch the free HD version

Don't have WMC (yet; Win7 is on order), but I looked at Zap2It and they (still) have two (identical) listings for KTVT. I believe KTVTDT is RF 19 and KTVTSTA is RF 11. (For good measure, they also have a third set of identical listings at KTXA 21.2, which KTVT used briefly after the 2009 digital transition )

What I did was create an account at Zap2it, then added all channels to my "favorites," then finally deleted dead channels like KTVTSTA and KTXA 21.2. Once you sign in Zap2it will remember who you are (on that browser) via a cookie. But since I don't have WMC I don't know if it sends Internet Exploder's cookie to Zap2it.

If it does send the cookie, it would limit the guide to your favorites, thereby omitting the troublesome KTVTSTA listing. It might not work, but it seems worth a try.

If that doesn't work, the only options I can think of would be to try to get Tribune to remove the dead channels from their DFW listings, or else upgrade to Win7

Don't you mean Windows 8 is on order?

Right now Roy Rogers has closed captioning going. Last show Burns and Allen did not.

I had forgotten there was a Roy Rogers TV show, as I mainly remember the old movies. But I do remember Roy Rogers as my favorite fast food restaurant, which is now expanding again in Va and Md. Better roast beef than Arby's and good fried chicken and burgers. But, back to broadcasting, interesting they offer CC on one show and not another. Maybe it will be added later.

Yes, I have just watched Highway to Heaven with closed captioning.

MediaFLO, run by Qualcomm, was dedicated on UHF 55 nationwide as Qualcomm had bought that frequency in the spectrum auction.

It lasted less than two years (no subscribers), was folded, and the spectrum was sold to ATT.

Hi all,

Hoping for a little advise. Wanting to install an indoor antenna for grandfather's new apartment. He has a Samsung LCD television so does not need a digital converter. He's on the first floor of a building in Grapevine, complex and area is wooded. He is not permitted to put an outdoor antenna on his porch. We just like to find something reasonable that would allow him to get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS. Any recommendation are appreciated.

Does he have a south facing window or patio-porch area? All the transmitter towers you're concerned with are south of Grapevine at Cedar Hill.

BTW FCC says rental properties have to reasonably accommodate an outdoor antenna to receive locals and small dish for satellite. I'm sure someone will quote the exact rule.

No, I intentionally ordered Windows 7 because Windows 8 doesn't include WMC for free anymore, and I've read that a few apps aren't compatible with Windows 8 yet.

I'll probably get the Windows 8 upgrade once I have everything running on 7. Supposedly I have one month (until Jan. 31).

Unless he wants some of that 'lectronic religion in Spanish on channel 18 or 30 There's also some foreign-language programming on channel 44. Those three channels are transmitted from downtown Dallas.


You can find details here, including phone numbers to call for info, and guidance on filing a petition with the FCC in case your landlord doesn't believe you (or is just stubborn) Here's the relevant quote from the linked page:

Sorry to hear that MediaFLO is kaput. It seemed to me that MediaFLO was a better technology than M/H for an low-definition TV subscription service.

Unfortunately it seems likely that Dyle will now follow in MediaFLO's footsteps, unless they can make some sort of deal with, say, luxury auto makers for back-seat TVs. The cost of a Dyle license may be out of line for a cell phone, but would almost certainly get lost in the cost of a new Caddy.

BTW, do you know if AT&T ever did anything with that little 6 MHz slice of spectrum?

He does have a south facing window. Just on a lark we went to Best Buy and got a set of $10 RCA rabbit ears. Plugged them in, used the scan function and got all the major channels, plus about 15 more that are Spanish, Jesus or Spanish and Jesus.

We've been on cable for so long, I didn't think ti could be this easy. Thanks for the FCC info.

As of 1/1 channel 68.4, ShopTV, is indeed a shopping channel (For the first week or so it was a simulcast of 68.3, IonLife.)

This is the same for Windows 7 WMC. You can't edit the channel sources directly. You can only remove them from being visible on the guide.

Anyone else notice the problem on KTXD 47.4 SD feed? When the video gets really busy, it will pixilate and lock up including the audio, until the video changes to less picture activity and resumes OK. Looks like too many changing picture elements to keep up with. I think maybe their encoder is being overloaded. 1st time I noticed this was last week watching Star Trek, Kirk and Spock were being held in a "force field" that appeared as rapid moving light waves surrounding them. Every time the scene would switch to that, the video would pixilate and lockup, and no audio. On 41.1, no problem. Saw it doing this again last light in a couple of scenes during I Dream Of Jeanie.

I have also encountered this during the Sunday night airing of "The Fugitive", which is now only on 47-4 since London's main channel is running what appears to be some kind of low-budget barter program. I can deal with the pixelation and macroblocking but the prolonged freezes in the audio and video are annoying.