Philadelphia, PA - OTA - Page 8

newsposter,

I'm getting KYW CBSHD just fine on both cable providers...in fact watching CSI:NY in HD right now, so OTA is working with them....don't know much about them otherwise, sorry.

But please! Email Fox 29 about your OTA issue, as it appears to be OTA interference of some sort...if a lot of people start complaining maybe they'll fix it stat!

-Derek-

damn this sucks. This morning 3.1 still out and 6.1 is bad. So I guess i have to admit something is amiss with my rig. However it blows my mind that the weak channels 17.1 and 29.1 come in so well when 3.1 doesn't at all..too freaky. And previously troublesome 57.1 has been wonderful all week for my wife! UGH

I may just try another amp on the chance the attic heat killed it this summer. I can't believe a tree would just bloom in late july and start up all this chaos then. Or maybe it got loose up there.

ill email fox now. If we all have the same exact issues, gotta be them.

geez um...wife said she turned on tv this afternoon and 3.1 and 6.1 were strong and in the 80s/90s very steady! Got home and everything was fine.

So can I rule out something like a tree or other object that grew in the past 8 months?

Before i found out this info, I had thought maybe the barrel connection I have on the floor in my breezeway got flooded in the tuesday storm but I dont think the water got to that point on the floor. I opened up that connection and it seemed dry. But even if it was wet, could that cause only one channel to go out? Or could it back up at least 50 ft to the amp in the attic? And if the amp was fried..it couldn't continue to work right?

I'm honestly at a loss here. Any ideas what could be wrong here?

I didn't recieve a reply back from Fox...I wasn't "expecting" one, but I thought maybe I would. I'm going to send the email again...the problem needs to be fixed stat in my opinion.

-Derek-

Just a thought...isn't 3.1 a real low frequency (lower than others)? So maybe a burnout/short is only occurring (or has occurred) on the lower frequencies?

Just a thought, I may be totally off base here, I know little to nothing about OTA stuff.

-Derek-

i know zip about frequencies so we are equal! 26 is my lowest uhf so maybe you are on to something. But thing that puzzles me is, assume the antenna is loose or there's a short. Ok fine. But there was virtually no wind yesterday and it's only on a 3ft mast on tripod...relatively low and steady to the roofline. and i can't imagine it's 'only' that loose that it killed 3 for 2 days then all of a sudden yesterday everything is perfect. There's no way an antenna can be that 'controlled' knocked out of alignment...i think. And if it did short out, how could it come back?

any techno wizards on here comment about shorting of the coax assuming water got into it somehow?

can't wait to see what this storm does to it. I hope there are very strong winds to test my theory or prove it is firmly intact on the roof. And I really can't see myself paying someone to go on the roof when i now have perfect signal

well during this hi wind now i'm getting in everything fine but now 10.1 is totally out..just like 3.1 was the other day. I guess that confirms it must be the wind. Sigh

but is there any chance it's anything other than a loose antenna? My wife rightfully asked..why call back the same people if it got loose after just 9 months?

edit it is now 4 hours later than my post.....i turned on tv and 10.1 has strength in the 90s..better than ever....6.1 is also 90s...those 2 channels, even when the antenna was indoors, were always pretty much right on target as a 'unit.'

however just moving them a bit admittedly did knock them out while i tried getting in 29.1. So i still cant believe 10.1 and 6.1 would be 'unsychronized' if you get what i mean. IE if 10.1 is out, 6.1 should be 'out' based on my past experience.

for reference 17.1 is low 70s..29.1 is mid to hi 70s....57.1 is low 80s... 3-1 is 90

So can i assume, with all this rain, that it's definitely NOT a connector getting wet since everything works ok now? I hasn't stopped raining in over 12 hours so I"m pretty sure that answer is yes.

And what are the true odds this antenna is moving enough to kick out only the top or bottom (26 and 67) of my spectrum and then just being nudged back into place the CORRECT way to make everything perfect again? Statisicians anyone?

Just an update. I watched both episodes of Vanished on Friday night when they were repeated. No glitches what so ever. Looks like they fixed the issue! Whoo!

AND! Fox has upped the bitrate from ~10mbps to 15mbps. But apparently it's only until Tuesday, and then when MyNetwork launches the bitrates will go back down...oh well, got two episodes of Vanished at 15mbps...

-Derek-

How do you know that they changed, and will change back, the rates?

this morning i have 80+ and mostly 90s on every channel. So how do you fix something that is working lol?

I capped the episodes last week to my computer...ran Mpeg2Repair, reported bitrates of 9.55ish....and then on the repeats on Friday night the bitrate was 15ish.

This same "anomaly" (as some are calling it) has been seen on the West Coast as well...with feeds from Fox2 (I think San Francisco, but I'm not sure).

Anyways, inside word from someone over there says they cleared some Fox feeds in order to prep for MyNetwork, opening up the bandwith...but once MyNetwork launches the rates will go back to the normal ~10.

But, who knows, maybe they'll stay the same! I hope they do. The difference between 10mbps and 15mbps is stunning. I noticed it even with the naked eye while I was watching Vanished and was like "wow, this looks reallly nice!", but I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me...and then later confirmed that my mind wasn't when I saw the file size of the capture and ran M2R. I hardly noticed any macroblocking on the 15mbps version too....

-Derek-

When I watch Fox non-prime time, I get a lot of ghosting. Is this normal? I have a samsung 3251D and a Phillips Sliver Sensor and live about 6 miles from the tower?

Thanks.

well nice we got more bits now...but i just hope they dont have all those cut outs tonight! (i assume that has nothing to do with bits right?

Nah, bitrate has nothing to do with it breaking up. The break ups were caused by their antenna or something interfering with the signal being sent out. Hopefully it's fully fixed and tonight's Prison Break and Vanished will be perfect!

As for ghosting, it's not "normal" persay, but for Fox I've noticed the ghosting for some time now...Keep in mind you're watching an upconverted 480i signal pillarboxed to 1080i...

-Derek-

Whoops! My mistake...yeah 720p...but it's still upconverted slightly from 480i (or p - not sure what their archival format is in...probably interlaced digibeta or so) to 720p.

-Derek-

Fox was clean again tonight, no glitches, and also, did you notice there was no logo tonight on the bottom right hand corner?

Hopefully they just forgot to add it and they aren't changing it to one of those new hideous logos that Phoenix got. The white and red ones. Ours was really nice and see through.

-Derek-

ditto...both fox shows perfect tonight....

fox was perfect again last night...and the bug was on screen too...maybe they got their act together finally.

i live in an apartment building downtown and i have an indoor antenna pointed out the window. i can get all of the high def ota channels ok except for nbc. i get a audio/video stutter every 30 seconds, consistently every 30 seconds. it's freaking annoying!

i ran a signal check program and nbc shows as up 95%-100%. am i the only one with this problem or should i upgrade to a powered antenna?

Hello All: It's been a while. Well I did my prefootball annual check FOX Philly's signal on Wednesday night and as per the norm nothing. HOWEVER much to my surprise last night I received a "strong" signal 57-60% way up here in Long Valley, NJ, great if it stays that way at least I'll be able to see all the Eagles games in HD. Did they finally boost power and move the transmitter higher as planned? I'm hoping it's just not an atmospheric condition anomaly. I saw this happen 2 years ago I got FOX in about the same strength for a few weeks in early fall and since then basically nothing. And just think I was ready to give up the OTA. I'll check it today in the afternoon and see if there are atmospheric issues.

Take Care.

Was it just me or the NBC Football HD broadcast last night was so bad! The audio is bad even though it says Dolby Digital on my receiver. It also seems that they are using a combination of SD and HD cameras because some angles look good but other have to much pixelization. For an openning and prime time game this is pretty bad.

FOX still has the weakest signal for me in Northern New Jersey.You will only receive it at night under good conditions until they increase their power and raise the height of the transmitter.

Does anyone know if NBC10 and CBS3 will go HD with the news at least? Comcast is awsome with their setup it allows alot. I Tell ya its a world of a difference watching stuff in HD format so much like amazingly great. I am so glad i got my set. With all of this great info here it helps out alot. Picture is umatchable on any SD set. Also i seen a Program that Aired on My Networks and i sorta do not like their damn Corner BUG on SD it shows the my phl 17 but on the HD side its sad and huge.