Who Needs FTA?

[Anole]

Tonight, several of the analog channels were running promos telling how to change over to digital converter boxes, etc.

So, I had my HDTV do a channel scan.
A dozen or so Analog channels showed up.
But for digital, it found 70 ! -

Many looked very familiar from FTA.
All the PBS, of course, plus some home-grown PBS, too.

One channel carried the logo: WSTV.
We'll see if it turns out to be Whitesprings.

Every foreign language under the sun.
We have Armenian/Russian, and a lot I didn't recognize.
Multiple stations with Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and one Japanese.

The one thing missing, was Philipino.
Los Angeles has a good community (at least I seem to know a few), so you'd think we'd have a local station.
And if we did, it could go national via satellite.
Who do I see about this?

I'll have to comb through all the choices and see what I got, now.
No more "basic cable".
The local channels have totally gotten out of hand! -
And I thought keeping track of all the FTA channels was a hassle.

Anyone else got competing OTA in their city?

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

Minneapolis is a yawn for extra Digital OTA. At best we've got a few PBSes (no Create, it wasn't good enough for our guys -- and they keep dropping subchannels), a weather on our NBC, and a few extra ION channels. We had The Tube and HDNet, but no takers. I'll love to see a few fun things show up: RTN/V would be a start so I wouldn't have to guess whether or not it's going to be there today on a 31" dish

 

[meinename]

Can't compete with 70
Color me green with envy! I know what some of those channels are!
And I'd love to get some of those channels OTA or just ITC but they are scrambled on Ku :river

Only 23 total digital channels here in Portland

Still no RTN even though there is an Low-power digital affiliate south of me taht does.
However it's on the same RF channel as another LD carrying A1 so it can't be DX where I am.
Rumor says they'll move their "displaced" transmitter up here to the TX farm at a later date.

 

[Cadsulfide]

You poor big city guys burdened with all those channels!

In NE North Dakota, lost ch 12 at changeover. Total of 1 digital (ch 8 Grand Forks). Had pbs for a couple of hours, Tropo probably. Was still gone this morning.

Still get the Winnipeg stations on analog.

 

[meinename]

You poor big city guys burdened with all those channels!

In NE North Dakota, lost ch 12 at changeover. Total of 1 digital (ch 8 Grand Forks). Had pbs for a couple of hours, Tropo probably. Was still gone this morning.

Still get the Winnipeg stations on analog.

Don't mock me too hard. I remember struggling to get anything of analog Fox and the WB- for years.

To my ire, I later found out- after retiring the family tv for an HDTV- that that fancy analog set had separate VHF and UHF inputs. And we only hooked up the VHF connector to the antenna.
Meaning my childhood Saturdays were spent struggling to get UHF channels on a VHF-only input

 

[tboy]

I did a fresh scan this morning, in Houston, Tx. area. I get 48 digital channels on a 108" RCA vhf/uhf boom, roof mount, ~20' off the ground. With a rotor there should be about 8-10 more.

Oh! no pre-amp.

 

[Sadoun]

Nice Anole. What type of antenna are you using? (pictures please, as
you always say )

 

[Fizbi]

HA! I need FTA...

Digital TV is a joke out here in the Wyoming wasteland.

Most of the OTA channels are from directional antennas that point in the wrong direction. The ones I do get (all 3) run the same shows on the sub channels.

No new joy here. :rant:

 

[Mr Tony]

got bored so I checked wiki on some of the stations in LA and DAMN...they do lots of subchannels

here are just a snippet
Channel 8 is a low powered station.
Subchannels
8.1 America One
8.2 Spanish religious
8.3 Christian Vision Television
8.4 White Springs Television

CHannel 44
Digital channels
Ch Programming
44.1 Paid programming, Magicbell[1], FCI[2] (Japanese), KBS[3], YTN[4] (Korean), Saigon TV[5] (Vietnamese)
44.2 TELE FE
44.3 SKDTV[6] (Korean)
44.4 Little Saigon TV[7] (Vietnamese)
44.5 Arirang TV[8]
44.6 IAVC[9] (Mandarin)
44.7 New Tang Dynasty TV[10] (Mandarin)
44.8 Channel Guide

Channel 18
Digital channels
Ch Programming
18.1 LA 18[2]
18.2 United Television Broadcasting[3] (Japanese)
18.3 MBC-D[4] (Korean)
18.5 USArmenia[5] (Armenian)
18.6 currently off the air as of April 2009 (was previously TopTV USA[6])
18.7 Vietnamese American Network (Vietnamese)
18.8 LA 18.8[7]

KJLA 57
Channel Programming
57.1 Main KJLA programming / LATV
57.2 LATV[2] (24/7)
57.3 Korean International Broadcasting[3] (Korean)
57.4 SET Vietnamese Programming
57.5 Saigon TV[4] (Vietnamese)
57.6 Vietnamese Broadcasting Services[5] (Vietnamese)
57.7 Voz y Visión[6] (Spanish)
57.8 Main KVMD programming / Armenian-Russian Television Network[7] (Armenian)

Thats crazy!! They have both America One and White Springs OTA

And I was kinda happy when our low powered TBN station went digital and I got SOAC & JCTV on OTA

 

[Mr Tony]

Minneapolis is a yawn for extra Digital OTA. At best we've got a few PBSes (no Create, it wasn't good enough for our guys -- and they keep dropping subchannels), a weather on our NBC, and a few extra ION channels. We had The Tube and HDNet, but no takers. I'll love to see a few fun things show up: RTN/V would be a start so I wouldn't have to guess whether or not it's going to be there today on a 31" dish

agreed Disco. But we got the TBN Mux now OTA

WHat sucks is WDIO/WIRT (Duluth/HIbbing) got RTN on a subchannel. They are owned by Hubbard who owns KSTP 5 and KAAL 6 (Austin)....why weren't those duplicated here too?

 

[sidha]

Good to see White Springs getting more coverage. May have something to do with them changing transponders. I hope they can improve the uplink compressed video, the quality of which is now quite the opposite of HD. Maybe they can come up with special glasses that will make it appear to look like HD, like the poorman's 3D approach. For the best experience, I think the seating and popcorn is more important overall.

 

[jh98]

Sioux City IA doesn't do too badly with HDTV.

NBC has CW on subchannel; ABC has Accuweather; PBS has PBS Learn & PBS World; Fox has America One, interrputed 7-9 pm for My Network TV.
CBS has Azteca, which is a sumulcast of an Omaha subchannel, picked up off the air with not the greatest quality.

NBC in Sioux City is to add RTN "later this year."

 

[Mr Tony]

Here in Minneapolis its blah....which for a major city sucks

CBS has nothing
ABC is a 24/7 news/weather. I dont need to see a replay of the morning news at 2:00 I'd prefer RTN
Fox, My & CW all have SD counterparts
NBC has weather 24/7. Use to be weather plus but now its KARE11 Weather

PBS has 4 channels...the HD feed, the MN channel which is simulcasted on all MN PBS stations...shows various PBS shows from MN & Wisconsin
TPTLife....think Create with local stuff mixed in
24/7 aeronautical weather

The advantage for us is those 4 stations are on 2 PBS setups so the HD feed doesnt look too bad

 

[qwert1515]

got bored so I checked wiki on some of the stations in LA and DAMN...they do lots of subchannels

We also get "This TV" as a sub channel to KTLA

Anole how is the VHF reception at your location? Channel 13 is a pain for me.

 

[rainmaker]

Feel lucky where I live can't get no OTA channels to many mountains between us and the TV stations located in Huntington and Charleston W.Va.:rant:

 

[LordKaT]

Here's what I can receive out on this island:

2.1 - CBS

4.1 - NBC
4.2 - New York Nonstop (filler channel, really)
4.3 - Universal Sports (wow what a snoozer of a channel)

5.1 - Fox
5.2 - WWOR (MyNetworkTV) which is already broadcast on channel 9! >:[

7.1 - ABC
7.2 - Live Well HD
7.3 - Eye Witness News Now

9.1 - WWOR (myNetworkTV)
9.2 - Fox (argh!)

11.1 - WPIX (CW)
11.2 - LATV (KJLA in Los Angeles, pretty cool)

13.1 - WNET (PBS)
13.2 - Kids Thirteen (PBS Kids)
13.3 - V-me

21.1 - WLIW (PBS)
21.2 - Create
21.3 - PBS Worls

25.1 - WYNE (local)
25.2 - City Drive Live (yeah, traffic cameras 24/7!)

(ch 29 is hard to receive here)
29.1 - WFME (local)
29.2 - Audio simulcast of WFME-FM
29.3 - Audio simulcast of Family Radio West Coast
29.4 - Audio simulcast of KEAR
29.5 - "FL #1" (dunno)
29.6 - "FL #2" (dunno)
29.7 - "67SUB" (dunno)
29.8 - "92SUB" (dunno)
29.9 - NOAA weather simulcast
29.10 - "FUTURE" (dunno)

31.1 - WPXN (Ion)
31.2 - Qubo
31.3 - ION Life
31.4 - Worship

41.1 - WXTV (Univision)

47.1 - WNJU (Telemundo)

57.1 - WLNY (local)

63.1 - WMBC (local)
63.2 - Korean language programming (yeah, they didn't name it)
63.3 - MBC-D (Korean with English subtitles)
63.4 - Mundo Hispano TV
63.5 - KBS (Korean with English subtitles)

68.1 - WFUT (local)
68.2 - WXTV (41.1)


Nothing I'm thrilled about. If 29 was easier to bring in, I'd probably keep the TV on NOAA most of the time. These channels have the opportunity for unique niche content and instead just broadcast a bunch of rebranded crap. >:[

I'm waiting for the day one of the locals broadcasts paid advertising 24/7 on one of their substations. You know it's going to happen.

Still, it's 45 channels. Not bad.

 

[meinename]

I'm waiting for the day one of the locals broadcasts paid advertising 24/7 on one of their substations. You know it's going to happen.

I had 2 analogs like that. One digital is like that now.

22/54 (PAX/ION) was all paid programming from 1am to 4pm
35 (-LP) is HSN

Now 16.1 (HSN) and 16.4 (JewelryTV) are on a Low-Power Digital
16.2 is BVM and 16.3 is America One, so

22.1 (ION) is the same as before with paid programming from 11pm-4am (start varies 11pm-1am)

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

agreed Disco. But we got the TBN Mux now OTA

Um...yay??

I forgot about TBN, probably because it's on the dish. I think the quality is marginally better OTA -- those G19 channels are pretty compressed.

Maybe the new people who bought Univision 13 will do some multicasting. Otherwise, yes, it makes no sense to have 45 and 5 sitting with nothing on their subchannels -- especially 45 since it's more or less SD as it is.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Wow! some of you have lots of OTA stuff. The stuff here is similar to what Iceberg has where he's at...PBS, weather sub channels etc...We do have This Tv on one sub and RTN on another one. The RTN one is a local low power that has 4 channels...one of which uses the call sign WKRP....for those of you who remember that show. Blind

 

[TimLones111]

Here from Canton, Ohio I have at the best locally, 28 "signals" on which I get at least PSIP (Schedule-Channel info)

3-1 NBC Cleveland
3-2 Former NBC Weather Plus, now just a Weather map radar graphic

17-1 TBN Canton, Ohio plus all the TBN subchannels (5 total)_-Have had TBN OTA since 1986)

21-1 NBC Youngstown, Ohio
21-2 WBCB-CW subchannel

23-1 ION, Akron, Ohio (Former ABC affiliate WAKR-From 1953-96)
23-2 Qubo
23-3 ION Life
23-4 Worship

25-1 PBS Cleveland
25-2 Ohio Channel (Statehouse News, Ohio documentaries, etc.)
25-3 World
25-4 Create
25-9 Cleveland Radio Reading Service-Audio for the Blind

27-1 CBS Youngstown
27-2 Fox Youngstown (WYFX-LP 17)

45-1 PBS Alliance/Youngstown, Ohio
45-2 ARTS Channel (To be replaced by Channel for locally produced specials in July called Fusion)
45-3 Mhz Worldview

49-1, 2, 3 Same as 45-Licensed to Akron, Ohio-Simulcast

55-1 CW Akron, Ohio

67-1 WOAC Canton, Ohio Informercials-Multicultural Broadcasting..

67 was recently sold to TCT Christian TV out of Buffalo, NY..There has been speculation they will change the virtual channel to their RF channel 47 and have an extra subchannel when the sale is completed..

Been also getting some Occasional decent Pittsburgh signals, which include CBS, NBC, ABC, Weather Channel and RTN..I now get RTN on a local low power analog channel..Which really begs the question..With all the subchannels above, why would one of these not add RTN..

Interestingly too with a Converter Box and Indoor Amplified antenna, I dont get a whiff of Fox 8, ABC 5 and CBS 19 or My 43 (with a This subchannel)

WYTV-33 ABC Youngstown with a MyTV digital subchannel, is supposed to get a 1000 KW transmitter pending FCC approval which should bring my local total to 30