How Many of us will lose distant networks in December?

[radio]

Its a Sunday morning. Normally, I try to "tune-in" my CBS Sunday morning show with Charles Osgood on OTA reception. Since the digital changeover, from my location in West Central Michigan, our Kalamazoo affiliate reception has been tiled and digitized on the best of days. Our Lansing Affiliate has been strong and watchable, and has, for that reason been my choice. Until today.

Having been a Colorado resident "wannabe" for a long time, I've enjoyed the distant networks on the dish, and was one of the ones, who when legislation passed that took them away for some had the waivers due to previous service before legislation. Lately, (in the past few years) it's been CBS via Colorado affiliate KCNC and SRL's services.

I had let this sub go, knowing I had to get used to NOT having it after 4D is shut down, since it is not offered on W-5. This morning, when cloudy weather had my normally "strong" antenna pixelating on OTA CBS, I re-subbed for one month at a very minimal price. (Thank you, SRL..you are appreciated.)

But, is anyone, like me, going to miss the Out of market and clear, clean signal of distant networks via our C-band dishes?

Thus far, searching FTA forums and the web, I'm not seeing regular CBS affiliates...and, I'm open for ideas. But, in the bigger picture, is there even a CHANCE of some network feeds after the dust settles? I can't be the ONLY one who will miss this option!

Sent note to the Colorado affiliates thanking them for allowing the uplink, knowing they don't receive funding from us, but hoping that someone in Management knows C-band-ers appreciated it.

The OTA digital revolution was certainly a revolution.....in the wrong direction! 30 miles and reception problems! No storms, just heavy clouds! No reception!

 

[pwrsurge]

Its a Sunday morning. Normally, I try to "tune-in" my CBS Sunday morning show with Charles Osgood on OTA reception. Since the digital changeover, from my location in West Central Michigan, our Kalamazoo affiliate reception has been tiled and digitized on the best of days. Our Lansing Affiliate has been strong and watchable, and has, for that reason been my choice. Until today.

Having been a Colorado resident "wannabe" for a long time, I've enjoyed the distant networks on the dish, and was one of the ones, who when legislation passed that took them away for some had the waivers due to previous service before legislation. Lately, (in the past few years) it's been CBS via Colorado affiliate KCNC and SRL's services.

I had let this sub go, knowing I had to get used to NOT having it after 4D is shut down, since it is not offered on W-5. This morning, when cloudy weather had my normally "strong" antenna pixelating on OTA CBS, I re-subbed for one month at a very minimal price. (Thank you, SRL..you are appreciated.)

But, is anyone, like me, going to miss the Out of market and clear, clean signal of distant networks via our C-band dishes?

Thus far, searching FTA forums and the web, I'm not seeing regular CBS affiliates...and, I'm open for ideas. But, in the bigger picture, is there even a CHANCE of some network feeds after the dust settles? I can't be the ONLY one who will miss this option!

Sent note to the Colorado affiliates thanking them for allowing the uplink, knowing they don't receive funding from us, but hoping that someone in Management knows C-band-ers appreciated it.

The OTA digital revolution was certainly a revolution.....in the wrong direction! 30 miles and reception problems! No storms, just heavy clouds! No reception!

There's a west coast CBS affiliate on Galaxy 3C C-band. As well, CBS studio feeds in HD are available on Galaxy 28.

 

[radio]

Thank you for the info. I guess what I will miss, is what I should have called a "sub" for it, on which I can reliably depend. But I'm grateful for the info. The time delay has been convenient, and, being able to select Colorado for me personally has been nice as well. I don't however like the fact that, at least at first, the "service offering" of a distant network option is gone. It's one less option for us all.

 

[tvropro]

I get whats on OTA locally, The DVB networks and and an out of market city of locals with DirecTV. It's too bad SRL won't keep the Denver nets going for the 4DTV. They probably could since they are owned and run by Comcast.

 

[Asket]

Distant Networks

You can get Chicago and New York on a grandfather claim. They transferred me back to Sobongo (NPS) which apparently sells them. The representative said he hated to do that because Dish knew what NPS did to me. The transfer was to someone not exactly an ordinary representative but it was done with little fanfare. The Chicago feeds are HD and better that local OTA in some cases.

 

[tvropro]

You can get Chicago and New York on a grandfather claim. They transferred me back to Sobongo (NPS) which apparently sells them. The representative said he hated to do that because Dish knew what NPS did to me. The transfer was to someone not exactly an ordinary representative but it was done with little fanfare. The Chicago feeds are HD and better that local OTA in some cases.

The problem I see with this is you would have to subscribe to Dish Network to do this. Then deal with Dirty NPS You could also get DirecTV and move your service address to get out of market locals. It would cost you no more since Direct includes locals with the package.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/228430-moved-tonight-escape-north-east-black.html

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/231931-how-difficult-risky-move-addresses-cant.html

 

[Mr Tony]

you dont need to sub to Dish to get the AAD/Sobongo/the company known as NPS stations. They just use Dish equipment. Its Cheap Charlie's way of thumbing the lawsuit he lost to provide distants 4 years ago. He signs an agreement with NPS and loans them a couple TP's to uplink stations and they use his equipment.

Otherwise you could go with Dish directly for $10 and get your locals (or ones near you)....you just have to own the receiver.

 

[TMair]

I get whats on OTA locally, The DVB networks and and an out of market city of locals with DirecTV. It's too bad SRL won't keep the Denver nets going for the 4DTV. They probably could since they are owned and run by Comcast.

I get my distant nets from the east coast, I know they are supplied by SRL, I wonder if this is one of the things Mike mentioned as being good news for the new year, I wish SRL and Skyvision would tell us what they DO have planned for next year, it might make me think twice about subbing again.
Terry

 

[tvropro]

I know, I'm sitting on pins and needles to know whats going to happen. We have 7 more weeks to shutdown (give or take a couple days) I guess we waited this long (since it all started in February) we can wait another 7 weeks. Good thing is NPS will be out of the picture. BTW NPS is not even its own entity anymore, they are under Sobongo and All American Direct. Call them when their closed and listen to the message.

 

[lonewolf454]

Does anyone but me wonder why an outfit peddling Dishnet would call their self All American DIRECT ????

 

[TMair]

I called SRL today to sub for my last month, it ends for me on Dec 21, I asked if, since they supply them, if the distant nets would still be available from the east coast, they said no sorry, so I guess every thing MUST come from W5, I'm just not sure it will be worth it to keep subbing, I sub SiFi to watch SGU, and that program sucks big time...IMO, and I don't see it getting any better, and since I have gotten Netflix I don't think I've watch 10 hours of Sat TV, so I guess will still wait to see what they are able to offer.
Terry

 

[tvropro]

The Comcast W5 datastream is not set up to cover anything but W5. It's possible it could be modified but who knows if they will ever do that. I think Comcast is mostly interested in the services they provide. Now the SES-1 channels if the modulation was changed they would probably support.

 

[Asket]

You are correct in all these things, but NPS refused to sell me Dish or anything else even though there was a credit. This was because I own my Dish equipment. I had to go to Dish and I really wanted the Chicago stations for personal reasons.
I do carry an SRS subscription for Denver 8 to the end and yes they did hint that something might be in the works regarding distant signals. This could be a bit touchy right now because of negotiations and legalities. Beware of Direct, do some in depth research
and Iceberg I think you did. Check the BBB regarding them.

 

[truckracer]

you can find distant stations on fta.

 

[Mr Tony]

Beware of Direct, do some in depth research
and Iceberg I think you did. Check the BBB regarding them.

we just had someone open a thread on it and the answers were pretty simple. Its all bull. Here is the thread
http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/234252-directv-received-f-bbb.html

I have Directv and they have been AWESOME anytime I have called. And I have called them alot
-to "move" twice (to get different locals)
-to add programming (even got a discount)
-when a receiver died they sent one overnight (normally they send it two-three day)

They get an A+ in my book right now

 

[tvropro]

we just had someone open a thread on it and the answers were pretty simple. Its all bull. Here is the thread
http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/234252-directv-received-f-bbb.html

I have Directv and they have been AWESOME anytime I have called. And I have called them alot
-to "move" twice (to get different locals)
-to add programming (even got a discount)
-when a receiver died they sent one overnight (normally they send it two-three day)

They get an A+ in my book right now

Direct's been cool with me when I called. They answered all my questions and did everything I asked for so they have a good rating with me as far as customer service goes.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I kinda wish I had kept the Denver networks. I was grandfathered under the SHVA rules but dropped the Denver 5 when they were on AMC7 because the video quality became crappy. Oh well. Anyway, I'd like to get the Denver stations so that I can see some decent news. The local news isn't real bad unless you watch on the weekends. Not to mention that they rarely talk about pro sports. I couldn't care less about high school and college sports. Anyway, they should never have allowed SHVA to pass. It's laughable that I can't subscribe to networks in another market but I can buy newspapers from anywhere - the local newspapers would suffer just as much as the local network affiliates.

 

[airplane777]

Yes I am from Colorado, I will definitely miss recieving the local channels on C-band. Too bad we can not pay someone to offer them!! With mountains, the digital over the air signal freezes and pixulates most of the time. There is not better picture than one from 4DTV. And beside taking away 4DTV/C-band is taking one of my favorite hobbies away from me! I don't like some small dish service that i really can't tinker with.

 

[dhj]

You don't have to live near the rockies for this effect! I'm in central PA near the Blue Mountains (not really a mountain from Colorado perspective) and lost half my channels in the transition. This is with rotating antenna and amplification. Wrote lots of letters to fcc and my missing channels telling them I preferred "snow" channels to no channels. Disappointed that more people didn't raise hell losing their OTA channels while fcc sold bandwidth. Got one of the missing channels back when it dropped from UHF digital to VHF digital. The digital that's receivable is really good and its great for those near the bigger cities. The transition was a loser for many rural folks. Dave

 

[madmike46]

You don't have to live near the rockies for this effect! I'm in central PA near the Blue Mountains (not really a mountain from Colorado perspective) and lost half my channels in the transition. This is with rotating antenna and amplification. Wrote lots of letters to fcc and my missing channels telling them I preferred "snow" channels to no channels. Disappointed that more people didn't raise hell losing their OTA channels while fcc sold bandwidth. Got one of the missing channels back when it dropped from UHF digital to VHF digital. The digital that's receivable is really good and its great for those near the bigger cities. The transition was a loser for many rural folks. Dave

As always the Rural folk always suffer.