OTA HD locals were there but quit because of DirectTV

[fzapper]

Last Dec (my Bday!) I bought a 50" HDTV (RCA DLP) hooked it up to my OTA antenna and was wonderfully amazed to find all the digital (and HD) channels I never dreamed were there. From 4 channels I suddenly went to 26. I live in the sticks of southeast (some call it "swampeast") Missouri, equidistant (150 mi) from STL and MEM.

I started watching broadcast TV, which I had not done for years, because it was HD ("24", "House", "Ghost Whisperer", etc).

Suddenly, last week, all of the digitals except for KFVS-12 stopped! I still had the analog signals but no digitals! The digitals get "info" but no picture except "searching for signal" for Fox (23-1), NBC (6-1), ABC (3-1) and all the others. This is with the OTA antenna.

My wife said she noticed an ad on one of the channels that said we had to go to DirecTV to get the local HD signals. When I go to my account on DTV it says I can not get HD locals in my area!

Needless to say I am P*SSED OFF!

It appears that DirecTV (DTV) pressured the smaller broadcasters in my area to stop the digital broadcasts unless they went through DTV. I tried to call DTV customer service tonight but, of course, "we are experiencing extremely heavy call volumes".

This is very wrong on many levels which I am sure I don't have to explain to readers of this forum.

Does anybody have insight into what is happening here? I plan to research the laws and regs and write my politicians, the FCC, and my locals stations a very irate letter!

If this is redundant I am sorry. I am new and haven't had time to search through all the (voluminous) forums.

 

[kb7oeb]

I'd call the stations first and ask if they changed anything. Stations are required to shutdown analog in 2009 so I doubt they shutdown the digital side because directv wanted them to.

Sometimes if there is work going on where the transmitters are many stations may lower power for safety reasons.

 

[osu1991]

Check the local forum for your area.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=430359&page=9&pp=30

If you are using a directv box I would reboot it. My old original directv hd box would drop the channels whenever they did anything to the psip data. You may need to clear all the channels and rescan. Check your antenna connections and alignment, a bad connection could kill your signals for all but the nearest station. Those local stations have spent millions of dollars to upgrade to digital, they are not going to stop broadcasting that signal unless they have a problem.

 

[Tower Guy]

Last Dec (my Bday!) I bought a 50" HDTV (RCA DLP) hooked it up to my OTA antenna and was wonderfully amazed to find all the digital (and HD) channels I never dreamed were there. From 4 channels I suddenly went to 26. I live in the sticks of southeast (some call it "swampeast") Missouri, equidistant (150 mi) from STL and MEM.

I started watching broadcast TV, which I had not done for years, because it was HD ("24", "House", "Ghost Whisperer", etc).

Suddenly, last week, all of the digitals except for KFVS-12 stopped! I still had the analog signals but no digitals! The digitals get "info" but no picture except "searching for signal" for Fox (23-1), NBC (6-1), ABC (3-1) and all the others. This is with the OTA antenna.

Does anybody have insight into what is happening here?

I sincerely doubt that your local stations did anything.

Were you using the tuner in your TV set? If so, your antenna may have malfunctioned, or your TV lost it's memory and you must rescan the channels.

If you were using the tuner in the DirecTV HD box, you or DirecTV may have done something to the guide information that is needed by the DirecTV tuner to find the over the air channels.

 

[Rick0725]

It appears that DirecTV (DTV) pressured the smaller broadcasters in my area to stop the digital broadcasts unless they went through DTV. I tried to call DTV customer service tonight but, of course, "we are experiencing extremely heavy call volumes".

Directv has no bearing on why you are now unable to receive off air hd broadcasts.

the problem lies somewhere in your antenna setup/system...antenna, wiring/hookup, and/or equipment.

 

[oncewaslost]

Are you getting any analog UHF channels?

If not it may just be your UHF wire/antenna.
Most all HD channels in my area are broadcast on UHF channels.

For example, my local channel 10 broadcasts analog to channel 10, but their HD is on UHF channel 24. The TV remaps to channel 10.1

Good luck!

 

[fzapper]

You (all of you) are right. What had me confused was:

1) Wifey swore she heard the editor at KBSI 23 say what I reported in my intial post (got to learn not to listen to her)

2) I was getting everything on channel 12 and nothing but analogs on all the other channels (except "info")

3) The missing digitals still showed "info" even with no picture.

For the fix:

1) I re-scanned channels but no change.

2) Checking OTA sig strength, ch 12-1 had 48%, 6-1 had 40% and was breaking up. The others were 0-5%.

3) Climbed on roof and everything looked OK. (Ant is ~15 years old)

4) Called local dealer about new OTA antenna and they explained that HD uses UHF and I probably had damage to the UHF elements.

5) Dealer stated that they have customers that are using rabbit ears that are getting all the major networks except ch 3 (which is at least 100 mi away). This will get me by until 6)

6) Dealer stated for about $140 I can have a top end OTA antenna installed on my existng pole that will get all the major and minor networks (digital) in area along with PBS out of Arkansas!

I feel like an embarrassed idiot, but I did discover SatelliteGuys, right?

 

[oljim]

Did he say what that socalled top end ant is?