CA - La Verne-Upland-Covina-San Dimas

[tdillon]

Since I discovered some local VOOMers I thought that I would start this thread so that we can help each other out.

In La Verne I can actually get a LOT of OTA digital stations. I can scan and lock 35 OTA's right now, and I think I will get more if I upgrade my antenna from the Winegard GS2000a that I have now.

 

[cmurray]

Since I discovered some local VOOMers I thought that I would start this thread so that we can help each other out.

In La Verne I can actually get a LOT of OTA digital stations. I can scan and lock 35 OTA's right now, and I think I will get more if I upgrade my antenna from the Winegard GS2000a that I have now.

Good to know. I didn't realize there were that many OTA channels to pick up. I am getting about half that with an inside antenna. I am really only concerned about the local channels and I do find KOCE-HD to be pretty nice. Is there any of the major locals that don't come in good?

 

[tdillon]

This last week I have been having problems with NBC (4.1) dropping their audio during prime-time. It seems that whoever is watching their monitors isn't checking the sound levels from the network feed. When the local news comes on usually the sound shows up too.

Yesterday channel 5.1 did a similar thing.

I think that the locals don't realize that people really are watching their digital feeds.

I like the 28.1 KCET PBS HD content, too bad that they split their signal and have 2 subchannels. It hurts the bandwidth quite a bit.

 

[cmurray]

I think I meant KCET also. Seems to have a nice picture either way. Well, I figure it can't be any worse to have the Voom provided antenna. I suppose worst case scenario, I can always plug my inside antenna back in or plug the ouside one straight into my tv tuner and see if the potential issues get resolved, if it is partly related to the Voom OTA tuner.

 

[tdillon]

CMurray, are you north or south of Baseline? Some people that are too close to the mountains (too far north in La Verne) are having difficulties with their OTA reception. I think that I lucked out, I am even with Oak Mesa Elementary and it seems to be a great location to pick up the locals.

Does your TV have a built in ATSC tuner for the digital channels? If so you can bypass the VOOM box for your locals unless you want to use VOOM's program guide. Later when VOOM gets the DVR you definitely will want the VOOM box to be able to get the locals.

 

[cmurray]

CMurray, are you north or south of Baseline? Some people that are too close to the mountains (too far north in La Verne) are having difficulties with their OTA reception. I think that I lucked out, I am even with Oak Mesa Elementary and it seems to be a great location to pick up the locals.

Does your TV have a built in ATSC tuner for the digital channels? If so you can bypass the VOOM box for your locals unless you want to use VOOM's program guide. Later when VOOM gets the DVR you definitely will want the VOOM box to be able to get the locals.

Ya, I do have an ATSC tuner in my tv. I will give the voom tuner a chance, since it has the program guide, but know that I have an alternative. So do you think with all the negativity in the forum, install problems, questions of Vooms future, customer service.... that you'd change your mind if you had to do it all over again or have you had no bad experiences and would recommend this service to anyone? I have 4 days til my install and I will backout if I think I need to, because right now I have no issue with E* and my pvr and I just hope I don't regret the change, minus a pvr and possible install/service issues. Any last words of encouragement?

 

[tdillon]

I've been very pleased with my Voom experience. Yes, there are growing pains, but so far everything has gone well with my installation.

I read the FAQ's about the Voom installation that the guys on the forum put together and it answered all of my questions before I knew that I had questions.

I asked the installer to run 2 cables from the antennas in to the set top box. He did, but left one unused. I let the installer do what he does and he used the Winegard Sensar II OTA antenna. He said that I needed to use the diplexer because that would power the amplifier in the antenna. It turned out that he was correct. I have the other cable sitting there for if and when I decide to get my own antenna, if I ever decide it is necessary. I get a lot of OTA channels already, and have all of the important ones. Many I block because I don't understand the language spoken, or the signal is too weak to be reliable.

So far Voom hasn't messed up my billing, but I really have been leaving them alone and have been fixing my own problems. The installer didn't really tweak the dish or OTA antenna for the strongest signal so I ended up doing it myself. I had a little TV up on the roof with me while I dialed in the strongest signals. It would have been a lot easier if I had someone reading out the numbers to me.

Since the new software update the box has been behaving well for me and my signal quality is the best it has been.

I can now recommend Voom without any qualifiers, which is a good thing. You should get the zero out of pocket installation since you ordered it a while ago. That really is the best deal that they have offered.

Until Dish and Direct start providing massive amounts of HD channels, Voom is the only game in town. Adelphia cable's HD offerings are a joke. I tried them for a week before ordering Voom.

 

[cmurray]

Installed on 8/7

Well, all is installed and pretty happy so far. I had a bad LNB, that caused alot of troubleshooting to delay the install, but they figured it out in the end. So far I am just feeling it out still. I do wonder though if channel 11 is coming in clear for you? It seems that it should, if all the other do, because it seems to be broadcasting from location as the other majors. It also seems they broadcast with more power than NBC, if I read the station info correctly. Does 11 seem to be fine for anyone else?

 

[tdillon]

11.1 is fairly strong for me at my location. Does your TV handle 720p? I believe that 11.1 broadcasts using 720p and if you have the set top box set to "native" mode it will pass this to your TV. If your TV can't display that resolution it will freak out a bit. If you change the stb to always convert to 1080i that will fix this problem. If that isn't the problem then I wonder if you are getting multipath distortion that is ruining the channel for you.

This week channels 7.1 through 7.3 have been down in the mornings, but they usually show up again before 5 in the afternoon. I think they must be doing some maintenance on it.

 

[tdillon]

KABC 7.1 problems?

Last night I was not able to tune any of the three ABC feeds, 7.1, 7.2 or the 7.3 weather map. I had a signal strength of 58, but NO SNR. Was KABC digital down, or am I now experiencing multipath distortion problems? The engineering staff at KABC denied having transmitter issues last night. This morning the signal was working for me again, with a signal quality of 96. It was down from 7:30 PM until I last checked at 11:00 PM.

 

[tdillon]

I have been having ongoing issues with KABC channels 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. I am using the Winegard Sensar II antenna, but have called VOOM and complained about my problem. I have been "approved" for an antenna upgrade. Installs is coming out Friday afternoon with a new antenna.

I can't wait to find out if my signal strength improves for the locals.

What antenna is everyone else using locally?

 

[mechaley]

I'm in Pasadena. I have an ATSC tuner built into my TV. I'm using a $2 bow-tie antenna I had stored away. I get all the locals fine. This includes: 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 9.1, 11.1, 28.1, 28.2 & 66.1. These are the channels I recall off the top of my head. I plan on installing a roof antenna when I finally convince my wife we need Voom!

 

[tdillon]

Okay, we finally had the first rain (a light one at that) since my installation in June. Satellite signal went from 97 to 63. I couldn't receive most of the satellite feeds during the entire 7 hours of rain. Now it is overcast and I have a signal of 83 to 87. I can get only half of the satellite channels. I am assuming that there is something wrong with the wiring and something got wet so that the LNB isn't switching polarity correctly.

I now understand everyone's rain fade complaints. I wish the Voom CSR knew whether we will be getting upgraded eliptical dishes soon. I hate to waste a trip to get a 30 inch dish that won't work with the new birds.

As an interesting aside, I rescanned the locals and found a new interesting source. It registers as channels 99-1, 99-2, 99-3, 99-5 and shows up as ESPN, ESPN-2, HGTV and FOOD. Is this a trick with the Voom satellite remapping some satellite channels as locals, or did someone put up a new transmitter on Mt Wilson?

 

[cmurray]

local OTA and Source broadcasting

This was posted by me in the Help Desk area, just seeing if putting it in here will get some ideas..:

Hi All,

I live in the LA area, but have a standard question. I receive an average strength in the high 80's for OTA. I seem to have little to NO blackouts or pixelation on all my major network stations except for channel 11 (Fox). Why would all other channels come in clear, but not 11? Aren't all channels being broadcasted from Mt. Wilson? My guess was the broadcast power of the channel? Is it possible I am experiencing nothing more than an under-powered signal from Mt. Wilson, than it being an issue with my reception or antenna?

 

[tdillon]

I was having the same problem, except it was channels 7_1 through 7_3. It turned out that the Winegard Sensar II antenna was getting multipath signals and cancelling out that channel. I had Voom upgrade the antenna. The installer put in a Channel Master 4248 which is very sensitive and very directional. Now I get all the locals that originate on Mt. Wilson. I lost 26_1 because it doesn't originate on Mt Wilson, but I never watched that one anyway. Having perfect signals from the major networks is great.