Wally not finding any OTA channels

[Delyan Kovachev]

Hello,

I’ve been trying to switch to local OTA channels instead of paying Dish for locals that are not even local to my area.
So, I brought new Televes antenna that comes with pre amp and I connected it to my Wally via the coaxial to HDMI converter.
It finds zero local channels.
So, just to experiment I connected the new antenna and pre amp directly to the coaxial input on the back of the TV and I get 38 channels (with the antenna still on the ground).
Unfortunately, I can use either the coaxial input or the HDMI input on the back of my TV, not both at the same time. During initial setup, the TV is asking if you are going to use coaxial or HDMI.
Do you think Dish is not allowing me to watch OTA locals or my coaxial to HDMI converter is not working? How can I tell?

 

[DishSubLA]

If you want to get OTA stations through the Wally and have it integrated with the Dish guide, you need the Dish OTA Tuner USB dongle. You connect the OTA coax to the female coax input of the Dish USB Tuner, and then connect the USB cable attached to the Dish OTA tuner into the USB input on the back of the Wally.

The Dish OTA tuner provides for only TWO tuners for OTA. That means you can view or record no more than TWO OTA channels at the same time (of course, you can record one OTA channel while watching another). Also be careful, sometimes amplifying an already decent signal can prevent you from tuning and receiving that signal/OTA channel. Considering what you got on your TV, you are probably getting the OTA channels just fine with your amp. I just wanted to let you know about how amps can sometimes be the culprit in some situations.

For clarity: the only thing your OTA antenna can do is receive and send the analog RF down the coax, and then that RF MUST enter a separate piece of equipment which is the TUNER. A tuner is built-in to HDTV and some TiVo's, but there is NO OTA tuner built-in to the Wally. So, you must use the Dish OTA USB Tuner for the OTA stations to be TUNED and then integrated into the Dish guide and viewed on the Wally. Dish did not build an OTA tuner into the Wally (or Hopper line) because the vast majority of Dish subscribers NEVER use the OTA feature of the Dish box, and saves those having to bear the cost for built-in hardware for an OTA feature they will never use. Those of us in the minority who want this feature bear the one-time cost of the Dish OTA USB Tuner, which seems reasonable to me.

 

[pattykay]

Hello,

I’ve been trying to switch to local OTA channels instead of paying Dish for locals that are not even local to my area.
So, I brought new Televes antenna that comes with pre amp and I connected it to my Wally via the coaxial to HDMI converter.
It finds zero local channels.
So, just to experiment I connected the new antenna and pre amp directly to the coaxial input on the back of the TV and I get 38 channels (with the antenna still on the ground).
Unfortunately, I can use either the coaxial input or the HDMI input on the back of my TV, not both at the same time. During initial setup, the TV is asking if you are going to use coaxial or HDMI.
Do you think Dish is not allowing me to watch OTA locals or my coaxial to HDMI converter is not working? How can I tell?

In my experience, the Wally has always been finicky about scanning OTA channels. Even when the scan finds channels, you would be very lucky if you can actually get it to find all of your OTA stations with a single scan. It usually requires a lot of patience and multiple scans before you can finally get as many stations as possible scanned in. Which model of Dish OTA USB tuner are you using? Is it the really tiny one with a detachable USB cable (Hauppauge model) or is it the slightly larger one with an attached USB cable (Lark or AirTV model)? The Hauppauge ones have long been prone to overheating issues, and are generally less reliable than the newer model. The new Lark and AirTV OTA tuners are both actually the exact same model. It is just that the Lark tuner is in a black Dish-branded case, while the AirTV tuner is in a white case.

Also, as DishSubLA said above, it is definitely a possibility that your amplifier could be over-powering the signal, which would also make it very difficult or impossible for the tuner to scan the stations.

 

[Jim5506]

He needs a Dish ($59) or Air TV ($29) dual tuner USB adapter. They are the same inside just a different case.

AirTV adapter is $29.99 bottom center of this page Products | AirTV