LA Area OTA Reception Issues w/VIP622 latest software

[george818]

I live in the Los Angeles area and have experienced reception issues on my VIP622 DVR on one particular OTA channel since approximately the last 622 (L4.03) software upgrade. The digital channel is KLCS, Channel 58-1 58-2 58-3 and 58-4, which comes over the air on frequency channel 41.

I have been receiving this channel on the 622 without issue for almost a year up to now. Now, when I turn to any of the channels, I see the picture and hear the sound clearly for a fraction of a second and then it switches to the yellow "loss of signal lock" screen and it shows signal strength of about 35%. Previously, this channel had a signal strength of about 85%. If I switch to my digital tuner in my TV (that uses the same antenna feed), the channel comes in fine and shows a signal strength of about 80%.

Can anyone in the LA area verify if their 622 performs the same on digital OTA channel 58-1 through 58-4?

This is important to me as KLCS (One of several LA area PBS affilates) broadcasts PBSKids 24/7 on 58-2, and that is pretty much the only channel that my 2 year old watches. His mom is giving me the business to get this fixed. As a short term solution I trained her how to change to the TV tuner, but would prefer another solution. Any suggestions?

Also, I wrote an email to the station and asked about any possible changes to their signal, but did not get a response.

 

[RandallA]

L4.05 software update is coming soon and it should fix your OTA problems.

 

[george818]

L4.05 software update is coming soon and it should fix your OTA problems.

That is good news... I hope that you are correct. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[george818]

FYI, L4.05 came through last night and my OTA reception issue persists.

Does anyone have any suggestions? or Has anyone else been able to verify the issue?

 

[RandallA]

L4.05 was supossed to address the OTA problems, too bad it didn't. One thing that has worked for some is to re-scan the local channels. I would first delete them all, reboot the receiver and then re-scan for local channels.

 

[george818]

L4.05 was supossed to address the OTA problems, too bad it didn't. One thing that has worked for some is to re-scan the local channels. I would first delete them all, reboot the receiver and then re-scan for local channels.

Will try this tonight. Thanks for your help.

 

[dendavis]

I live in the Los Angeles area and have experienced reception issues on my VIP622 DVR on one particular OTA channel since approximately the last 622 (L4.03) software upgrade. The digital channel is KLCS, Channel 58-1 58-2 58-3 and 58-4, which comes over the air on frequency channel 41.

I have been receiving this channel on the 622 without issue for almost a year up to now. Now, when I turn to any of the channels, I see the picture and hear the sound clearly for a fraction of a second and then it switches to the yellow "loss of signal lock" screen and it shows signal strength of about 35%. Previously, this channel had a signal strength of about 85%. If I switch to my digital tuner in my TV (that uses the same antenna feed), the channel comes in fine and shows a signal strength of about 80%.

Can anyone in the LA area verify if their 622 performs the same on digital OTA channel 58-1 through 58-4?

This is important to me as KLCS (One of several LA area PBS affilates) broadcasts PBSKids 24/7 on 58-2, and that is pretty much the only channel that my 2 year old watches. His mom is giving me the business to get this fixed. As a short term solution I trained her how to change to the TV tuner, but would prefer another solution. Any suggestions?

Also, I wrote an email to the station and asked about any possible changes to their signal, but did not get a response.

I live in Anaheim, in the flatlands area, and receive Channel 58 OTA. I have not noticed an difference in reception, however, I have never really been happy with their HD signal, so I typically have to rely on SD if I am going to record something.

 

[george818]

I live in Anaheim, in the flatlands area, and receive Channel 58 OTA. I have not noticed an difference in reception, however, I have never really been happy with their HD signal, so I typically have to rely on SD if I am going to record something.

I am not that far from you, but in Fullerton, near Harbor and Brea. Odd that I never had a problem until L4.03 and my TV tuner works fine. I am going to try the previous suggestion tonight and see if that helps.

You're right about the quality, 58 has their bandwidth split up over 4 channels and I believe all of them are SD. They would probably have to drop one or two of their multicast channels to get an HD channel (Like the other PBS channels KCET and KOCE with 1 HD 2SD each from what I recall). Or maybe they just don't have the money for the necessary equipment (This channel IS run by the Los Angeles City Schools and does not do pledge drives). In any event, my 2 year old does not care if it is HD or SD, he just want's to watch Jay Jay the Jetplane !

 

[george818]

Well I tried deleting the locals, a hard reboot, and a re-scan and still have issues . Looks like I may just have to wait it out for a while and see if a future software upgrade fixes this.

Thanks everyone for you help

 

[george818]

Just an update...

After some combination of "check switch"-"delete all locals"-"unplug"-"plug in"-"freeze during bootup"-"unplug again"-"plugin again"-"bootup"-"scan for locals"-"unplug"-"plug in"-"bootup"-"wait overnight" KLCS is magically working again on my 622 showing 85 signal strength and no breakups. I did notice that another local channel, KDOC, behaves as KLCS was, but I don't watch that channel and it is available on the Sat so even if I wanted to I could. Wife is happy now, about this anyway. ;-)

And yes, I checked and my software is still at 4.05...

 

[KAB]

After some combination of "check switch"-"delete all locals"-"unplug"-"plug in"-"freeze during bootup"-"unplug again"-"plugin again"-"bootup"-"scan for locals"-"unplug"-"plug in"-"bootup"-"wait overnight" KLCS is magically working again on my 622 showing 85 signal strength and no breakups.

Or, the planets are all lined up and in harmony with the universe.

 

[waltinvt]

or Dish sends out un-documented "maintenance" code that we don't know about.

 

[dlsnyder]

I was having similar problems with KLCS, then later with KDOC. Both are back now and working fine. I think KDOC had a temporary transmitter problem. On another note, I can not get digital channel 68 KRCA to show up in the guide. The problem seems to be that they have channel 0 (or possibly no channel number) showing as their channel number in the PSIP data. Granted I do not watch KRCA, but I am sure someone out there does and would like to have this fixed. My old 811 was able to display the channel, showing it as channel 68 instead of their analog channel assignment of 62. My LCD TV with a built-in ATSC tuner does the same thing. Why can't the 622 do this?