can I use OTA antenna with 722 DVR?

[wschwisow]

Hi all:

I am in the Seattle/Tacoma area and we no longer have channel 4 (ABC) due to contract issues between Dish and whoever. I'm trying to get it with an over-the-air antenna that a friend gave me. I have the VIP 722 dual tuner DVR and the antenna is a RadioShack indoor VHF/UHF - HDTV model. I am running from the TV out port on the antenna (also has an AUX port) into the Over-the-air antenna in port on the DVR. The antenna is set on channel 4 (which was the ABC local channel). When I go through the "scan for local channels", it doesn't find any. If I try to manually add a channel, I scroll to "4", but no signal strength shows at all.

I realize all of this could be incompatible with each other, but I also don't know what I'm doing, and I hope I'm just missing a step. The DVR manual makes it sound like plug and play. What am I missing?

Thanks.

 

[RandallA]

Connect the antenna directly into the 722 and then scan for the channels. The 722 will detect them and you'll see the channels in the guide in yellow.

 

[n0qcu]

KOMO DT uses RF Channel 38 for their digital signal, so that is the channel you need to add to your 722.

 

[wschwisow]

Still no go

Hmm... I set the channel selector on the antenna to channel 38, then went back into my local channels set up and manually selected 38. It shows "0" signal strength on anything I choose (it's more like it's not working). That's why I'm wondering if I have missed a step somewhere. Any other ideas?

 

[n0qcu]

It is very possible that you are not close enough to the transmitter site to be able to use an indoor antenna.

Check antennaweb.org for information on what antenna type is required for your exact location.

 

[SillyConVal]

The 722 ATSC tuner tunes only digital channels, not analog channels. Make sure your antenna is set to receive from the UHF band, because all digital signals are being transmitted from the UHF band right now. When you scan for locals on the 722 you should see digital channel 4 listed as 004-01, not 4.

 

[Lkr]

The 722 ATSC tuner tunes only digital channels, not analog channels. Make sure your antenna is set to receive from the UHF band, because all digital signals are being transmitted from the UHF band right now. When you scan for locals on the 722 you should see digital channel 4 listed as 004-01, not 4.

This is not true, my local NBC affiliate is VHF

 

[SillyConVal]

This is not true, my local NBC affiliate is VHF

This is news to me. I would be interested to know the call letters and/or location of this station so that I can verify that its digital transmission is on the VHF band.

 

[whatchel1]

many not all

The 722 ATSC tuner tunes only digital channels, not analog channels. Make sure your antenna is set to receive from the UHF band, because all digital signals are being transmitted from the UHF band right now. When you scan for locals on the 722 you should see digital channel 4 listed as 004-01, not 4.

You really should research before stating things like this. Most are in UHF but many are high VHF. Most stations will be going back to their VHF channel if it is 7 or above after their transition. Mine operates on 13 right now but when we transition it will be back to ch 9. The stations in that are low VHF have lost those when the transition takes place and will be on a different frequency.

 

[KKlare]

Sorry whatchel1,
You are wrong too. Some stations are using their low VHF channel number or one higher or lower.
Example IIRC, Chicago CBS channel 2 has been using digital on 3--the people there are not happy.

The higher UHF channels are just less likely to have ghosting, which shows up as a low-quality digital signal.

Most areas are also having a maximum channel of 59 or 60 from 83 or 70, depending on how far back you go, to allow sale of spectrum to other uses.

While channels for analog must be separated (except 5-6 and 13-14) digital channels can be adjacent without interference if they are co-located. Separated ever 2 or 3, if not.

Asides: channel 37 is reserved for radio astronomy and thus never used OTA. Cable channels can be adjacent because they keep the levels even and frequencies stable.

 

[whatchel1]

I stand corrected

Sorry whatchel1,
You are wrong too. Some stations are using their low VHF channel number or one higher or lower.
Example IIRC, Chicago CBS channel 2 has been using digital on 3--the people there are not happy.

The higher UHF channels are just less likely to have ghosting, which shows up as a low-quality digital signal.

Most areas are also having a maximum channel of 59 or 60 from 83 or 70, depending on how far back you go, to allow sale of spectrum to other uses.

While channels for analog must be separated (except 5-6 and 13-14) digital channels can be adjacent without interference if they are co-located. Separated ever 2 or 3, if not.

Asides: channel 37 is reserved for radio astronomy and thus never used OTA. Cable channels can be adjacent because they keep the levels even and frequencies stable.

Actually there are only 12 using low band VHF in the entire country. None of which are 5 or 6 which I believe are going to be part of the emergency services.

 

[garys]

The 722 ATSC tuner tunes only digital channels, not analog channels. Make sure your antenna is set to receive from the UHF band, because all digital signals are being transmitted from the UHF band right now. When you scan for locals on the 722 you should see digital channel 4 listed as 004-01, not 4.

This is not even close to being true. Two of my HD locals have been VHF since they wer turned on. And it was a choice they made since both the analogs were UHF and they even sent out press releases stating that they will stay as VHF after the analog channels were shut off plus all the locals were UHF before this and many people has to change their antenna setup due to this. Also note that only two of my locals (Scranton/Wilkes Barre, PA if you want to check) have stayed on, one because they extended and the other (WNEP) did shut off their analog but was told they had to turn it back on. Also note that it is the tuner software on the Dish receiver giving the channel as 004-01 and not the channel doing that, my digital tuner in my dvd recorder list the channels as 4-1.

 

[KAB]

I think the point has been made.