OTA question for a clueless person (me!)

[pattykay]

1- The Guide shows all the OTA stations. But No information available. So, how do you record any show? No time blocks or program names to select.

You can put the Hopper in standby (turn it off) and leave the TV on to watch the screensaver. After many minutes, you should see a guide download start with a percentage progress indicated. Watch that percentage carefully. It may go back to the regular screensaver in the middle of the download, making it look like it is done, but it is not. After waiting some more minutes, the guide download screen will reappear. When the percentage indicated reaches 95%, then the next time the screen goes back to the screensaver, the guide download is actually done. You can then turn on the Hopper and go to the guide to see the guide information populate for the OTA channels. Dish may not actually provide OTA guide data for all of those channels. However, the ones without guide data will display one-hour blocks of the station's call letters, making it easier to set manual timers for those channels by selecting that block in the guide.

 

[sam_gordon]

Still getting NBC WLWT 5 from Cincy, which is 70 miles North of me, and it looks great. Public tv and its subs very very good. CBC and its subs r still Crap.

If Cincy is 70 miles north of you, I'm guessing the Lexington stations are slightly south of you. Your antenna may be "aimed" north and you're picking up the CBS on the "back side" of the antenna. How are your other Lexington stations? NBC & ABC antenna is less than a mile from the CBS. Fox and PBS are about 10 miles further south (but up on a hill). If NBC, ABC, Fox, and PBS from Lexington are all good, and your only problem is CBS, I wonder if you're getting too much signal from CBS. That's just a guess though.

2- Does adding distribution amplifier between airtv adapter and antenna (preamped) coax help to improve signal quality or is it just a dumb idea? (Mostly thinking the future if I cancel Dish)

The advantage of digital is once you get a strong enough signal, the signal quality is perfect. Unlike analog where the signal would deteriorate but remain watchable as signal strength drops, digital gives you perfect signal quality until it's not. It's called the "digital cliff".

 

[Altitudinous]

I checked the software version. Still the same as it was last week. Here they r:

Hopper 3 U936 11/07/2020 3:03 AM
Appl. Soft. AN458

Joey 2 U766 11/07/2020 3:29 AM

You stuck with it and got good results! Great.

You might want to still do the software upgrade to avoid the pixelation problem that many have reported.

 

[TheKrell]

You can put the Hopper in standby (turn it off) and leave the TV on to watch the screensaver. After many minutes, you should see a guide download start with a percentage progress indicated. Watch that percentage carefully. It may go back to the regular screensaver in the middle of the download, making it look like it is done, but it is not. After waiting some more minutes, the guide download screen will reappear. When the percentage indicated reaches 95%, then the next time the screen goes back to the screensaver, the guide download is actually done. You can then turn on the Hopper and go to the guide to see the guide information populate for the OTA channels. Dish may not actually provide OTA guide data for all of those channels. However, the ones without guide data will display one-hour blocks of the station's call letters, making it easier to set manual timers for those channels by selecting that block in the guide.

You, sir, have much more patience than I do!

 

[pattykay]

You, sir, have much more patience than I do!

I could have just said "wait thirty minutes or so" but I am actually impatient. I want to turn the receiver back on immediately as soon as the guide download is finished.

 

[navychop]

As noted, do not expect to ever get 100% guide data, especially on subchannels.

 

[sktrus]

I'm guessing the Lexington stations are slightly south of you. Your antenna may be "aimed" north and you're picking up the CBS on the "back side" of the antenna. How are your other Lexington stations?

Well Sam; NBC, ABC, Fox, KET (Public) from Lexington, KY r excellent. (Yes, they r South of me.) Some r even better than locals I get from Dish. CBS, no.

This is what I noticed when I went to attic. The roof rafters run from West to East. The back of the house is facing West. the installer hung a metal bracket (almost J shape) from a rafter. it is holding the antenna. The front of the antenna is pointing at West. I am guessing the back is where the coax is attached. When I peek to the other side of the antenna I see the antenna name and the model (Terk55) in the back. Is my assumption correct that side is the back?. I wonder if he did not pay attention. Shouldn't the antenna face South for the best reception? I used iphone compass and an app in the attic. The app shows the arrow to all network transmitters (roughly 20-23 miles) to South. When I am next to the antenna (looking in the direction of the antenna), South is my left!! If I am right, I need to find a way to rotate the antenna to left facing South. Maybe, a 2X4 between rafters and move the bracket.
After moving or rotating the antenna, do I need to rescan?

Thanks.

 

[sktrus]

You can put the Hopper in standby (turn it off) and leave the TV on to watch the screensaver. After many minutes, you should see a guide download start with a percentage progress indicated.

thanks Crodrules, do you do this just once? Or is it necessary to do it often for weekly or biweekly guide update? Dish does it biweekly automatically for the regular stations I get.

 

[sktrus]

I checked the hopper software version this morning. It updated at 3 am. Now it is the latest. I get no pixelation on ota stations except CBS and its subs. I will rotate that antenna.
I also checked guide. It updated too on ota stations. most have info. Some don’t. But all have time blocks.

 

[TheKrell]

As noted, do not expect to ever get 100% guide data, especially on subchannels.

While you are probably right, I'm still seriously annoyed that Dish is presumably paying for guide data on all channels, and not just some. So, (if true) Dish is not getting it's money's worth and should complain to the guide provider until everybody has all guide data.

I need to find a way to rotate the antenna to left facing South. Maybe, a 2X4 between rafters and move the bracket.

Yes, do that. And while you do that, suspend the antenna via something that is not made of metal! Since there is no wind up there, you could suspend it from something relatively weak, e.g. cable ties or even some juke twine. Now, if you hang the antenna by some twine, it could rotate around it's long axis and point up simply from the weight of the coax. I am assuming the Terk55 is sensitive to such a rotation...

After moving or rotating the antenna, do I need to rescan?

No, probably not if you still have your CBS station showing (even though unwatchable). When in doubt, just rescan. You might find a few more channels showing up once the antenna is pointed in the right direction.

 

[pattykay]

thanks Crodrules, do you do this just once? Or is it necessary to do it often for weekly or biweekly guide update? Dish does it biweekly automatically for the regular stations I get.

The guide download normally happens overnight, or whenever else the receiver is in standby. Since you had just added the OTA stations, the guide data for them obviously would not have downloaded with the previous update. My procedure was simply the way to get a new guide download if you are in a hurry, and do not want to wait for the nightly update. Also, there are times when the guide does not update overnight like it should (maybe due to software changes). In those cases, it can be necessary to actually turn the receiver on and then put it back in standby before the guide will download, even though it should have already done that when it was in standby before. Keep in mind that my entire experience is with Wally and Hopper Duo, so Hopper 3 may behave slightly differently.

 

[pattykay]

While you are probably right, I'm still seriously annoyed that Dish is presumably paying for guide data on all channels, and not just some. So, (if true) Dish is not getting it's money's worth and should complain to the guide provider until everybody has all guide data.

Dish probably is receiving all of the guide data, it is just a matter of whether Dish is willing to use up the satellite bandwidth to actually uplink the guide data for all of the sub-channels. Dish normally re-uses the guide data stream for the satellite-delivered version of the local, mapping it to the OTA version, to save space on the satellite. However, with the recent slew of local disputes, there are a ton of extra separate OTA guide data streams for those channels, so OTA viewers can still have guide data while the satellite versions are showing the dispute message. Even when all of the disputes are resolved, and Dish goes back to sharing the same guide data stream for both the satellite and OTA versions of the same channel, Dish still has to reserve that space for the extra guide data streams, so they can be ready for the next dispute. To create space for even more guide data streams, to cover additional sub-channels, then the space would have to be freed up somewhere else.

There is hope, though. Dish is finally about to start a transition to completely phase out all of the old MPEG-2 8PSK SD receivers, and upgrade all of those customers to HD equipment. When that process is completed, that will free up a ton of space on Western Arc, that can then be used for other purposes.

 

[TheKrell]

Dish probably is receiving all of the guide data, it is just a matter of whether Dish is willing to use up the satellite bandwidth to actually uplink the guide data for all of the sub-channels.

I hope it's not bandwidth that is Dish's issue! Good grief. The guide data already come down (IMHO) very slowly. And most of us have connected equipment, which could come down rather rapidly if speed of guide updates is an issue.

 

[pattykay]

I hope it's not bandwidth that is Dish's issue! Good grief. The guide data already come down (IMHO) very slowly. And most of us have connected equipment, which woujld come down rather rapidly if speed of guide updates is a concern.

That could be another concern: Dish not wanting to slow down the guide downloads even further, by having to download guide data for a bunch of additional subchannels. I remember in my early days with Dish, the new receiver models would have relatively speedy guide downloads, at first. Then, as Dish continued to add more channels, the guide downloads got slower and slower. This was in the days before the OTA stations could even be integrated into the guide.

Later, with ViP equipment, my hobby was dxing: trying to find as many OTA signals as possible from as many markets as possible. Since the ViP receivers would allow you to keep stations in the list that are not actually coming in at the time when you re-scan, I was able to build up quite a long list of OTA channels in the guide. Even without guide data for most of the subchannels, nor for channels that Dish did not carry at all, that still slowed my guide downloads to a crawl.

As far as even using the internet connection, and/or a guide app as others have suggested before, I am seriously starting to doubt the processing capacity of Dish's current line of receivers. It seems like every time lately when Dish adds a new app, they have to remove another app or remove something else to make room for it:

• Before Locast was added, Dish removed Hopper Arcade.
• Before the Gallery app was added, Dish removed the More Video Services app.
• Even with the latest update, to add Amazon Prime to (some of) the Joeys, Dish had to remove the Home Media from the main menu for all receiver models.

So, Dish receivers may not have the capacity to handle guide downloads over the internet, until they come out with the next brand-new line of Hoppers, or unless we want them to remove some other apps or some other functionality to make room for that feature.

 

[Bobby]

Well Sam; NBC, ABC, Fox, KET (Public) from Lexington, KY r excellent. (Yes, they r South of me.) Some r even better than locals I get from Dish. CBS, no.

This is what I noticed when I went to attic. The roof rafters run from West to East. The back of the house is facing West. the installer hung a metal bracket (almost J shape) from a rafter. it is holding the antenna. The front of the antenna is pointing at West. I am guessing the back is where the coax is attached. When I peek to the other side of the antenna I see the antenna name and the model (Terk55) in the back. Is my assumption correct that side is the back?. I wonder if he did not pay attention. Shouldn't the antenna face South for the best reception? I used iphone compass and an app in the attic. The app shows the arrow to all network transmitters (roughly 20-23 miles) to South. When I am next to the antenna (looking in the direction of the antenna), South is my left!! If I am right, I need to find a way to rotate the antenna to left facing South. Maybe, a 2X4 between rafters and move the bracket.
After moving or rotating the antenna, do I need to rescan?

Thanks.

Yes that antenna should face south. The end without the coax is the front and that is the end that faces south.

https://voxxintl.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/225273767-Mounting-Terk-TV55-Indoor-Outdoor-Television-Antenna

 

[sam_gordon]

Well Sam; NBC, ABC, Fox, KET (Public) from Lexington, KY r excellent. (Yes, they r South of me.) Some r even better than locals I get from Dish. CBS, no.

This is what I noticed when I went to attic. The roof rafters run from West to East. The back of the house is facing West. the installer hung a metal bracket (almost J shape) from a rafter. it is holding the antenna. The front of the antenna is pointing at West. I am guessing the back is where the coax is attached. When I peek to the other side of the antenna I see the antenna name and the model (Terk55) in the back. Is my assumption correct that side is the back?. I wonder if he did not pay attention. Shouldn't the antenna face South for the best reception? I used iphone compass and an app in the attic. The app shows the arrow to all network transmitters (roughly 20-23 miles) to South. When I am next to the antenna (looking in the direction of the antenna), South is my left!! If I am right, I need to find a way to rotate the antenna to left facing South. Maybe, a 2X4 between rafters and move the bracket.
After moving or rotating the antenna, do I need to rescan?

Thanks.

Step 1 is to mark the current aiming of the antenna (so you have a "known good" location to return to if things totally get FUBAR'd).
My step 2 would be to look at the signal quality rating on each channel. The fact it's only the CBS still makes me wonder if you're getting too much signal from it. I'd actually put a splitter in line and look at the signal quality ratings again and compare them. The splitter (which you now know will cut the signal strength in half) might actually increase the signal quality for CBS and have limited to no effect on the others.
If that didn't help, my step 3 would be rotating the antenna.

I don't really think it's an aiming issue. If the antenna is pointed west, I'm surprised you get Cinci stations clean and the Lexington CBS is breaking up.

No, you shouldn't need to rescan after turning the antenna.

 

[pattykay]

Dish had to remove the Home Media from the main menu for all receiver models.

I stand corrected. With the latest software U827, the Wally still has Home Media. I guess this officially kills any chance of the Wally ever getting the Amazon Prime app, since there was no need to remove Home Media.

 

[TheKrell]

I stand corrected. With the latest software U827, the Wally still has Home Media. I guess this officially kills any chance of the Wally ever getting the Amazon Prime app, since there was no need to remove Home Media.

I'm lost. Where is the official announcement that is so?

 

[pattykay]

I'm lost. Where is the official announcement that is so?

Well, which way do you want to bet on that: Wally will lose Home Media, or Wally will gain Amazon Prime?

 

[TheKrell]

Well, which way do you want to bet on that: Wally will lose Home Media, or Wally will gain Amazon Prime?

I think I'll stay put with my current bet.

What was that exactly? I can't relocate our bet a the moment. I feel like your suggestion above was part of it.