St. Louis, MO - HDTV - Page 423

John,

KSDK via OTA comes in as sharp as a tack. This pretty much goes for all the HD locals. The problem must be at Charter's end. I subscribe to Dish Network and while the station PQ is very nice via satellite, the OTA signal is a bit sharper probably due to less compression artifacts. No one in my home other than I can actually notice the difference. I don't know where you live, but the ability to haul in OTA signals reliably, depends greatly upon where you live and the type of antenna used. Unless you live close to South County, consider a root-mounted antenna.

I think a lot depends on what you're watching it on - as far as the OTA signal goes, on a 32" or 40" LCD I don't notice many compression artifacts-if you get up close to the screen and look for them you can see them but they are not blatantly noticeable. However, on the front projector (120" screen) it becomes quite apparent especially when the picture transitions to a new scene or it fades to black.

Anyone not being able to pick up 9,1-4 and 11.1-2 over the air? My LG can't anymore, nor can it pick them up over Charter. My Toshiba can though, at least through Charter. I haven't tried OTA with it yet.

Bo

I was watching KETC about two hours ago and playing with my spectrum analyzer. They looked normal then.

Here's a 1:1 capture from Monday's Revolution. It's a girl running through woods. (It's a little tricky to get a capture since it's interlaced but this looks about right.)

There is so much motion, it's difficult to tell what's going on in the frame you provided. On average the two HD channels should have similar PQ. If ch. 5 looks far worse than ch. 4 my guess is either it's a Charter issue or the ch. 5 you are viewing is not in HD on the cable.

Yeah, that's the problem! Overly-compressed, in my opinion, so that all motion totally breaks up. KMOV is fine.

Hi all! I am new to the St. Louis area and I am considering putting in an OTA antenna. My research shows that all the local stations are pretty much in the same direction and all are UHF. It would seem that a rotor is not necessary for reception. Does this information seem correct ? Any tips on what model antenna works well? I am in the Richmond Heights area.

I live in Richmond Heights (at the bottom of a hill) and I don't need a rotor, just a tall enough mast that I can get the antenna above the horizon.

Use TVFool.com to check the direction that you need to point the antenna, and point at the middle of the directions of the local digital stations. I found it necessary to shade a little more toward the KMOV side of the center to keep it from dropping out.

Give a DB2 or DB2e from hometown company Antennas Direct a try. If you want something from a retail store, either the C1C from Walmart or the C2 from Best Buy would also work although they're quite a bit more expensive.

Aim the antenna towards just a bit west of south and you should do okay.

Thanks! for the above responses. Kind of what I thought.

I have a question regarding OTA HD service in St. Charles. TVFool is down so I can't post my info but I was wondering what channels are available and if this antenna would be sufficient to receive them. Any advice/info would be appreciated. I bought a cheap indoor antenna off monoprice but it isn't cutting it. I'm curious if it would be worth it to try an upgraded version. Outdoor/attic antenna isn't really an option.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007MXZB2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Depends on where in St Charles you're at. Some areas are easy, others are not. Much has to do where you are relative to surrounding terrain and other close-in obstacles.

That antenna is among the better indoor antennas around (although it does have a crappy amplifier, last one I checked).

Does anyone have recommendations on DirecTV installation? Are there better installers in the St. Louis area?

Here's my TVFool Data. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dcc49927086abe7

Do you think it's worth a shot?

I live in the 63016 (Cedar Hill MO) I cannot get channel 11. I can pick up 2,4,5,9,24,30 and 46 easily. Its driving me crazy! Looking at the tower locations it seems to right next to the others I dont get it.

Move your antenna few feet (left, right, up, down) and try again. Rinse and repeat as needed.

The hills and valleys in and around Cedar Hill makes for a few multi-path prone areas. Yes, I'm somewhat familiar with your area as I live just north of there.

A lot also depends on what antenna you're using, information not supplied.
Edited by ProjectSHO89 - 10/31/12 at 4:10pm

Looks like you're on Lee, just off Elm (or really close by). My daughter used to live on Elm a few years back, but I haven't been in that area for 7 or 8 years.

If you have a window that faces towards South county that offers a moderately clear signal path, the HDTVa ought to work well enough.

Currently watching the CMA Awards on 30-1 over the air.

Is it my imagination, or did 30-1's picture quality improve a LOT since they got rid of the subchannel on 30-2?

Hey Jim Wracer, I know "programming" isn't your department, but how 'bout letting the powers that be at Sinclair know we'd be plenty happy if y'all just renumbered "The Country Network" to 30-2 and did NOT replace the Cool channel (or whatever it was, I never watched it)?

By the way, the 5.1 surround on the CMA's is flawless, too.

Ouch! Spoke too soon about the sound. Several dropouts during Eric Church's peformance of "Springsteen."

Good to hear things look good!
I did not change the bandwidth....still waiting for word from the top if we're going to put anything on .2.
Jim

That was probably on the net. I 'm monitoring, but did not have the audio up high enough. At our Fox stations I've heard very brief audio drops from net.

Dropouts continued during Eli Young's performance (accompanied by some video pixellization), but stopped once the show got back to award presenting again.

Sound during Taylor Swift's performance was flawless, but dropouts came back during Little Big Town's song.

Hunter Hayes' performance was perfect. Not a dropout to be seen (or heard).

Several more performances, no dropouts. Hope I don't jinx it by mentioning that.

Speaking of dropouts, during the baseball playoffs the local Fox broadcast over DirecTV had frequent dropouts of about half to one second black screen and no sound. No dropouts from Fox OTA. Suppose I should complain to DTV, but I watch very little on Fox.

KSDK and DirectV

Looks like KSDK and DirecTV are going to the cliff over their contract. I noticed a crawl this morning during the Today show that was giving DirecTV customers a "heads up". Midnight Friday looks like the end of their current agreement.

Makes me wish I could drop locals from my D* service and save a few bucks since I can get everything local with my antenna.

KTVI and the holidays

I found this to be notable enough to share with others in the St Louis area.

On a much nicer note, KTVI reporter Paul Shankman's recent column details special concerts that KTVI will be airing on 2.2 between now and the end of the year.

The article can be read at http://fox2now.com/2012/11/28/ktvi-2-2-to-broadcast-local-concerts/

PS89

I wish we still had the good ol' days when everybody had an antenna, so DirecTV (and Dish, and Charter, and Uverse) could tell the locals to take a long walk off a short pier.