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Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV - Page 355

post #10621 of 13479
9/12/09 at 6:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by djp952 View Post

I sold out to the man.

I was home sick today and thanks to the rain had a most miserable experience trying to watch TV. In fairness, I think my house grounding rod may need to be replaced which is probably MOST of the problem with the rain, but still. It was so frustrating trying to watch the US Open coverage on either 9 or 13, that I've had it.

I ordered the FiOS "Local TV" package and I'm now out of this game. VHF sucks and I'm done trying. Fall season starts in a week, and I absolutely have to have good recordings to send my lovely wife who's in Germany for the next YEAR patching up our injured servicemen and servicewomen. No CBS at all that works during inclement weather is just not an acceptable situation.

I still get to keep one antenna to pick up the slack with missing FiOS channels from D.C. (20, 50, 66), so my fun isn't completely over, but still ... I've had enough. Those channels are easy.

Thank you all for your assistance and time lately, but I'm probably going to just fade away into hard-wired obliviousness here. LOL. Oh, and if you'll forgive me ... SCREW VHF.

unfortunately i went over to the dark side also, being up in harford county out in the woods i took it all hook line and sinker. one consolation i get to watch my beloved gators football.
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post #10622 of 13479
9/12/09 at 6:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by djp952 View Post

Don't think badly of me!!! heh.

Nah, you're fine. I can't blame you given the unusable CBS station problem.

- Trip
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post #10623 of 13479
9/13/09 at 12:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big J View Post

My Sony SXRD has a cable card slot. Comcast tried twice to install one for me, but couldn't get it to work properly. I told them to forget it. Cable companies HATE cable cards. I've got cable going straight to my set. Luckily, I never opted for premium channels, so I got could bypass a box.
J


Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.
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post #10624 of 13479
9/13/09 at 12:46pm
Anyone having glitching issues with WJZ HD via Directv? Been watching the Ravens game and it's been dropping out and glitching the whole game.
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post #10625 of 13479
9/14/09 at 4:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkfs View Post

Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.

It turned out, that I didn't need a cable card-I just wanted the locals in HD, and they didn't say that they were QAM available.
You just have to do a scan, and see what turns up. I don't know if you can get premium channels via QAM since I only pay for expanded basic. The placement is somewhat random, so it helps to bookmark the channels, or put them on you favorites list. I do get TNT-HD and Universal-HD. I used to get random VOD, but they plugged that leak. That's fine, since usually all I ever got was either kid's shows or porn.
J
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post #10626 of 13479
9/14/09 at 7:13am
I was attempting to watch the Ravens game yesterday over the air on WJZ and having trouble when I noticed that one ear of the antenna still had a couple of inches to come out. To my surprise that made all the difference.
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post #10627 of 13479
9/14/09 at 9:16am
I was wondering if any of the HD news laggards in the area would be rolling out HD News in time for the fall season.
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post #10628 of 13479
9/14/09 at 9:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkfs View Post

Given that the Cablecos were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting cablecards at all; I'm shocked, just shocked, that they wouldn't couldn't make them work. A friend had that issue with Brighthouse but persisted until they fixed all their internal issues...


But here's a related question: How can you tell which channels you'll be able to get with a direct connection and which you can't? This if RCN would be the cableco.

You should get what you pay for; except no on demand and guide etc.

For COMCAST Montgormery County I was getting a different set of channels on two of my cable card tvs. PITA to get a technician out and check out the cable card on the one set as to why some of my premiums weren't coming in; but after that visit I was still missing some. Turns out they didn't have correct subscription information for me in the central database tied to the card in that TV. And the standard help techs can't fix it; you have to get to another level of help if you have problems. But they have to fix it; in my case no charge for the house visit but I had to take off and be home.

One problem with cable cards is that since there is no guide, people like me tend to hide the unsubscribed channels to minimize hassle when surfing channels. So when new channels are added you won't see these if you have them hidden for surfing convenience.
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post #10629 of 13479
9/14/09 at 11:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by carltonrice View Post

I was wondering if any of the HD news laggards in the area would be rolling out HD News in time for the fall season.

Heh, I'm almost convinced that WRC will never, EVER roll out HD news.
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post #10630 of 13479
9/14/09 at 1:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by machpost View Post

Heh, I'm almost convinced that WRC will never, EVER roll out HD news.

Me too.
J
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post #10631 of 13479
9/14/09 at 1:23pm
What normally comes on CBS at 9pm on Mondays? According to my FiOS guide, WUSA will be airing the Dr. Oz premiere tonight at that time. Assuming that's accurate, I guess it's because they couldn't air it this afternoon due to U.S. Open coverage.
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post #10632 of 13479
9/14/09 at 3:32pm
Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.
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post #10633 of 13479
9/14/09 at 6:03pm
Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the DC Area and new to this thread, though I've been on the forums for a little while now. I've been having some problems with my Comcast HD signal and was wondering if anybody else has seen this.

I've got the Motorola HD Box (DCX3200) and I get a pixelated picture when using my AT&T cell phone. It appears to only effect SciHD (217) and FXHD (221) to my knowledge, but it may effect more than that.

Some quick Googling revealed I'm not crazy ( http://www.broadbandreports.com/foru...eless~start=20 ) but I was wondering if I'm the only one in the DC Area with this problem.

Does anyone have a channel list by frequency like what is posted in that link? I'd like to confirm the range of channels affected by my phone.

Does anyone think the Ferrite beads will do anything? My experience with Comcast tells me I'm going to get the SOL response from them, so I figured I'd check with the experts.

Thanks in advance!
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post #10634 of 13479
9/14/09 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dexter6 View Post

Does anyone think the Ferrite beads will do anything? My experience with Comcast tells me I'm going to get the SOL response from them, so I figured I'd check with the experts.

Thanks in advance!

Radio Shack has some ferrite chokes they stock, it can't hurt to try. You can undoubtedly get them WAY cheaper somewhere else, though

I personally don't think it will do much, though. It's probably more likely that the tuner inside the cable box isn't adequately shielded. Do you have the coax grounded? I think cable does it like you would with OTA with a grounding block outside the house hooked to the Earth ground. Also make sure all your connections are good through the entire system. I've heard that loose connectors can cause an increased sensitivity to interference.

Are you using an amplifier anywhere? If so, you might want to try unhooking that to see if perhaps the amp is making things worse.

One easy way to see if maybe your system itself might have a flaw would be to find somebody else with the same box and use your phone over there
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post #10635 of 13479
9/15/09 at 4:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus Carr View Post

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

Yikes!
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post #10636 of 13479
9/15/09 at 5:43am
WBAL likes to do things half way. They have two syndicated shows in HD and two that should be. They have HD news but still no DD5.1 at any time.
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post #10637 of 13479
9/15/09 at 7:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjones73 View Post

Anyone having glitching issues with WJZ HD via Directv? Been watching the Ravens game and it's been dropping out and glitching the whole game.

I was at the game and recording it OTA through my DISH DVR. The DVR's OTA tuner is pretty flaky and I lost almost the entire game due to whatever problems they were having.
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post #10638 of 13479
9/15/09 at 12:55pm
Anyone else lose MPT Channel 22? I'm pointed towards Baltimore TV Hill but have been able to get channel 22 with 80%+ signal on the backside of my antenna (only 6 miles away due south). The last couple of weeks I've noticed that their signal strength had degraded a bit but I had no reception problems. Last night (Mon) they were completely gone - 22.1, 22.2, and 22.3. I could still receive 26.[1-4], 14.1, 50.[1-2] all from DC on the backside of the antenna. I rescanned a couple of times too - nothing. Have they jacked around with their xmission pattern?
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post #10639 of 13479
9/15/09 at 1:03pm
My daughter is less than 2 miles from the tower and occasionally loses all signal. I think they've got a screw loose.

jtm
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post #10640 of 13479
9/15/09 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hsweiss View Post

Anyone else lose MPT Channel 22? I'm pointed towards Baltimore TV Hill . . .

You may have been experiencing tropo activity from RF channel 42 in Philadelphia last night. The activity was moderate last night.
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post #10641 of 13479
9/15/09 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus Carr View Post

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

It was HD on WUSA today. Hard to believe that's the same tiny studio that Late Night with Conan O'Brien used for 16 years. "Oprah money" indeed.
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post #10642 of 13479
9/15/09 at 5:46pm
I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!
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post #10643 of 13479
9/15/09 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hokiefan View Post

I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!

Here's a post from a couple months ago.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post16664202
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post #10644 of 13479
9/15/09 at 7:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hokiefan View Post

I'm looking for anyone that lives out in haymarket/manassas/leesburg that is picking up baltimore stations. In particular, WJZ. What type of antenna/amp are you using? Thanks!

I've put up 2 antenna systems recently in the Manassas, & Leesburg areas. The Baltimore stations come in much better in Leesburg than in Manassas, but neither location provided "reliable" digital reception. The heavy air traffic from Dulles airport is a deal breaker in most of these areas.

WJZ & WBAL are not even 100% in Fairfax or Arlington using a Winegard YA-1713. You'll see an occasional hiccup that you never see on the Baltimore UHF stations. And you can forget watching them with a thunderstorm within 20-30 miles. Unfortunately, the FCC didn't do enough research on this VHF thing.
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post #10645 of 13479
9/15/09 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital Rules View Post

You may have been experiencing tropo activity from RF channel 42 in Philadelphia last night. The activity was moderate last night.

Seems that might have been it - I rescanned again tonight and Channel 22.[1-3] MPT is back on the air.
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post #10646 of 13479
9/16/09 at 6:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Miller View Post

My daughter is less than 2 miles from the tower and occasionally loses all signal. I think they've got a screw loose.

jtm

I've never had drop outs from Channel 22 before - they have been rock solid. I wonder if your daughter is suffering from signal overload (I had that problem after WJZ 13 changed to their directional antennas).
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post #10647 of 13479
9/16/09 at 5:21pm
Looks like WUSA is finally doing 16:9 promos for local programming and news. Unfortunately, like WTTG, they're in SD. At least the one I saw for Dr. Oz and the afternoon programming block was. Couldn't tell if the bump for the 11pm weather forecast was or not.
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post #10648 of 13479
9/16/09 at 6:15pm
@Jim Miller:

FWIW, 22 (42) is rediculously powerful from here in Elkridge. It's the only DTV channel I can tune by simply putting my finger on the coax jack (no lie). I would seriously consider overload (as per hsweiss) given her distance from the tower.

Time will probably tell on this one. Tropo comes and goes, but as we move into the winter months, if the issue starts to get worse and worse, overload becomes more and more likely.

You could contact WMPT to see if they would hook you up with a single channel attenuator for 42 given your proximity, but be advised that you'll almost undoubtedly lose 54 (40) and 24 (41) from Baltimore, if those are a concern. I believe Channel Master's JoinTennas have been discontinued, but if in the end you feel that a single channel injector/attenuator is in order, a company named TinLee still makes them. Probably more $$ than it's worth.

$0.02

edit: I didn't even ask ... are you using an amplifier?
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post #10649 of 13479
9/17/09 at 4:39am
Anyone else have Mont. County Comcast play peek-a-boo with some of the locals yesterday? I seem to have lost some of them again. Have they moved them (again)?
J
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post #10650 of 13479
9/17/09 at 5:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus Carr View Post

Dr. Oz was in SD on WBAL.

WBAL had shown a promo in at least widescreen. False advertising.
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