DTV transition problem

[Yes616]

I deleted all my locals and rescanned locals on the 722. The 722 is now no longer receiving several channels. WABC in NYC in particular had a very high signal. i rebooted and rescanned several times same result.

I then rescanned on my HDTV. All Channels come in perfect!!.
The tuner on the 722 has lost signal strength vs HDTV

P.S. All timers assoc with OTA channels now have to be redone DOH!

Thanks
kevin

Maybe something is wrong with your hook-up? I wouldn't give up the ship just yet.

My daughters boyfriend in Parksville, NY is getting WABC at 90 miles away. How far away are you?

 

[wkomorow]

I deleted all my locals and rescanned locals on the 722. The 722 is now no longer receiving several channels. WABC in NYC in particular had a very high signal. i rebooted and rescanned several times same result.

I then rescanned on my HDTV. All Channels come in perfect!!.
The tuner on the 722 has lost signal strength vs HDTV

P.S. All timers assoc with OTA channels now have to be redone DOH!

Thanks
kevin

Can you easily get to your splitter? Try disconnecting it and running the antenna directly into the 722 with no splits and see if that helps.

 

[kevinsickles]

Tried taking out the splitter, no difference. The problem seems to be the channels I dropped changed from uhf to vhf. HDTV (a samsung) is picking up the VHF, the 722 isn't.

 

[wkomorow]

Tried taking out the splitter, no difference. The problem seems to be the channels I dropped changed from uhf to vhf. HDTV (a samsung) is picking up the VHF, the 722 isn't.

Sorry, don't know - 4 of my stations are VHF (6,8,12,13) and they all come in fine on my 722.

 

[whatchel1]

Should have to

I deleted all my locals and rescanned locals on the 722. The 722 is now no longer receiving several channels. WABC in NYC in particular had a very high signal. i rebooted and rescanned several times same result.

I then rescanned on my HDTV. All Channels come in perfect!!.
The tuner on the 722 has lost signal strength vs HDTV

P.S. All timers assoc with OTA channels now have to be redone DOH!

Thanks
kevin

The timers shouldn't have to be changed if they had been under the same virtual channel. I didn't have to do any of this on my 622. All timers for the new channel are the same as the old virtual ch number.

 

[kstile]

Tried taking out the splitter, no difference. The problem seems to be the channels I dropped changed from uhf to vhf. HDTV (a samsung) is picking up the VHF, the 722 isn't.

I ran into the same problem here in Seattle. Was getting KCPQ (Fox) just fine OTA on channel 18 (which is UHF, right?) and with the transition yesterday they moved to 13 (which is VHF, right?). I deleted all the channels and rescanned and KCPQ isn't showing up at all (with the exact same antenna position as before).

Mine is a 622, not a 722, but I wonder if Dish's OTA can handle any VHF DTV channels? All the other ones are still VHF and still working:

KOMO: 38
KING: 48
KIRO: 39

Anyone in the Seattle area successfully (still) have KCPQ OTA?

 

[Koilvr]

Yes dish can do both UHF and VHF. It depends if your antenna can do UHF or VHF. Alot of antena's say HD ready but can only do UHF, almost alot of the antennas can not do VHF. SO check to see which one you have. Alot of the stations where on UHF before the transition but now most are on VHF & UHF check with ur local broadcaster if they moved back to VHF.


Before the digital transition they where sellin antenna's that where UHF only and sayin HDready. Because alot of the stations where on UHF. They make more money if U have to buy a new antenna again lol

I could be wrong thou I was told that VHF is no longer on for digital they will shut the signal down, But I found couple of my locals on VHF after the transition

 

[kstile]

I think you're exactly right. With all the confusion about OTA, why oh why would KCPQ decide to go and change their broadcast from UHF to VHF? I understand the marketing appeal of broadcasting on channel 13 (instead of 18, where they were) but no one else (at least for now) is doing it. And you're right, too, that I was one of the early adopters for OTA HD: "Oh, look, all the OTA HD channels are on UHF so all I need is a UHF antenna..." This is the one I have:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SDV2780-Indoor-Antenna-Black/dp/B001S0UH4U/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1244929899&sr=1-17"]Amazon.com: Philips SDV2780 TV Indoor Antenna (Black): Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31owwnikD-L.@@AMEPARAM@@31owwnikD-L[/ame]

(or very similar) but the kicker is that it is UHF only. Boo!

So I guess I'll go back to watching KCPQ-HD via Dish or pony up for a new antenna that does both UHF and VHF. I wonder if any of the other stations are going to switch to VHF only...

 

[teachsac]

One thing to consider is stations might not have the correct PSIP info after the frequency change. Dish boxes require the information to be correct. We had the same problem here in Sacramento this morning and with one station after they chenged equipment. A call to the stations might be in order.

S~

 

[TheKrell]

I was told that VHF is no longer on for digital they will shut the signal down

That message was somewhat garbled. From memory: low VHF is no longer valid for high-power TV broadcasting since the spectrum is being sold again for other purposes. That spectrum was formerly occupied by channels 2-6. Channels 7-13 are high-VHF and still good.

 

[whatchel1]

Not sure about

One thing to consider is stations might not have the correct PSIP info after the frequency change. Dish boxes require the information to be correct. We had the same problem here in Sacramento this morning and with one station after they chenged equipment. A call to the stations might be in order.

S~

The E* VIP units only lately even see the PSIP data. Up until around a month ago it didn't even accept the PSIP.

 

[kstile]

I got confirmation from the "DTV Answer Desk" that they set up here in Western WA that, indeed, KCPQ is now broadcasting on VHF channel 13 (instead of UHF channel 18). I sent a note to their "Ask the Engineer" address to get more info to see if A) they're planning on coming back to UHF also and B) if he can give me a technical reason why they made the switch. I guess the number of people who bought antennas that bought only UHF-only antennas was pretty small, but for months (years) they've been telling us the only people affected by the transition would be people with analog tuners in their TVs, not that they'd also change the frequency of something that has been working just fine for a very long time...

 

[whatchel1]

9 and 13

I think you're exactly right. With all the confusion about OTA, why oh why would KCPQ decide to go and change their broadcast from UHF to VHF? I understand the marketing appeal of broadcasting on channel 13 (instead of 18, where they were) but no one else (at least for now) is doing it. And you're right, too, that I was one of the early adopters for OTA HD: "Oh, look, all the OTA HD channels are on UHF so all I need is a UHF antenna..." This is the one I have:

Amazon.com: Philips SDV2780 TV Indoor Antenna (Black): Electronics

(or very similar) but the kicker is that it is UHF only. Boo!

So I guess I'll go back to watching KCPQ-HD via Dish or pony up for a new antenna that does both UHF and VHF. I wonder if any of the other stations are going to switch to VHF only...

You better check again KCTS PBS in Seattle went to 9 their analog as well as KCPQ on 13. Both of these are high band VHF. I'm slightly surprised KIRO didn't go back to 7.

 

[teachsac]

The E* VIP units only lately even see the PSIP data. Up until around a month ago it didn't even accept the PSIP.

Dish boxes are very tricky. Gotta luv 'em. While they don't get the guide data from the PSIP stream, there is channel mapping info embedded, also. This is the portion they have to read that is incorect. We had a couple stations a few months ago that had to make a slight change in their setup. D* boxes were able to tune into the actual broadcast frequencies, while E* boxes looked for the mapdown. Same thing was going on this morning with two of our stations. The box was looking for PBS on 53 when it was actually on 9. Our ABC moved from 61 to 10.

S~

 

[david_jr]

Tried taking out the splitter, no difference. The problem seems to be the channels I dropped changed from uhf to vhf. HDTV (a samsung) is picking up the VHF, the 722 isn't.

The samsung TV's (I have 2) have very sensitive tuners. The VIP's not so much. I suspect that several of the stations you're looking for went back to VHF. WABC is now on 7, WNJB is now on 8 and WPIX is now on 11. You probably need a VHF HI antenna to get these channels. That is unless there are other environmental causes for you not getting them like multipath, or building in the way, etc. VHF HI antennas are not as large as VHF LO antennas like I have on my house (14 Ft long).

 

[david_jr]

Great signal strength. My VHF antenna points at 298 degrees and I can actually get 6 OTA - 75% signal strength and NO drop-outs.

28 went digital on Wednesday - it is located on south mountain (less than 15 miles south from you). WNYT has a second repeater on Greylock (38) if you can get anything off that mountain. I am getting that one at 68% if I point directly at it - 30 degrees NE otherwise nothing.

My antennas don't see any of the signals coming off Greylock even though I am only about 6 miles from the summit as the crow flies. However I am at the western base of Brodie Mountain across from jiminy Peak Ski Area and Brodie blocks Greylock from me. Getting everything great out of Albany now except for 45 which doesn't come in on TV's or VIP. Glad you're getting 6 now though.

 

[tnsprin]

That message was somewhat garbled. From memory: low VHF is no longer valid for high-power TV broadcasting since the spectrum is being sold again for other purposes. That spectrum was formerly occupied by channels 2-6. Channels 7-13 are high-VHF and still good.

At least as listed on the FCC pages about the DTV conversion, 2-6 are still valid VHF even after this conversion. Only the UHF 52 and above are going away.

 

[wkomorow]

My antennas don't see any of the signals coming off Greylock even though I am only about 6 miles from the summit as the crow flies. However I am at the western base of Brodie Mountain across from jiminy Peak Ski Area and Brodie blocks Greylock from me. Getting everything great out of Albany now except for 45 which doesn't come in on TV's or VIP. Glad you're getting 6 now though.

WCWN is supposed to replace their directional antenna with an omnidirectional one within the next 6 weeks, which should help those of us in the Berkshires. With all the complaints elsewhere, the digital transition has been great for improving OTA in the Berkshires. Now if AM radio would only go away and I can get rid of the WUPE tower that interferes with my reception of Springfield stations, I'd be all set.

 

[kstile]

You better check again KCTS PBS in Seattle went to 9 their analog as well as KCPQ on 13. Both of these are high band VHF. I'm slightly surprised KIRO didn't go back to 7.

You're right about KCTS (9) going to VHF. And so did KSTW (11). For now, KIRO is staying put; the engineer from KCPQ says: "KCPQ, KCTS, KSTW all went back to VHF...The rest are all UHF, and will stay where they are. " I guess I never watched PBS or KCTS so I didn't bother to check for those.

 

[Jim5506]

It seems that the problem with the ViP receivers when a station changes frequencies but keeps the same virtual channel, the ViP does not drop the original RF signature but keeps it associated with the virtual channel and then adds the new frequency also associated with the same virtual channel and the receiver says WHAT!!!.

My 622 locked on to one of the old RF frequencies and would not change channels until I went in and deleted the bad data.

So you need to delete ALL your channels (especially those who change frequency) and rescan so your receiver will drop the invalid associations between RF and virtual channels.