HD help and Info Please

[sonic]

Okay so im new to this stuff, so forgive me for my easy questions.

So i got my 811 reciever recently and hooked it up to my new samsung 50' dlp tv...HD service on discovery and everything looks amazing. My question was about HD service for things like the NBA, finals all football games that are not on CBS and such, WGN (i live in chicago) and stuff like that? Did i buy HD service not to get the HD stuff that i really wanted to watch?

Do I have to watch a separate channel if i wanted to watch HD (eg 002-1)?

Why the hell don't they just add all the OTA(5,7,32) stuff on the dish too...thats why i freaken bought this sh*t!!
Do i need to have a separate HD antenna for that stuff?

Also i would like to know if there is a way to make the channel locking quicker?

Any other tips all the people on this board would be highly appreciated..Thanks in advance.

Bobby

 

[SimpleSimon]

Welcome aboard!

Your questions are common, please scan the threads - your answers are all there, and pretty easy to find.

OTA & satellite are two separate things, and it's gonna stay that way. There's only so much bandwidth out there, and up there.

The fact that you got ANY OTA stations at all without an antenna is pretty amazing - if in fact that's what you're saying. I can't really tell from your post.

 

[joeadt]

Hd

Sonic, Sounds like you were mislead like I was. Here's my story and the answers your looking for.
My cable company pissed me off. I live 1/4 mile from there hub station and have been waiting 3 years to get 2-way service. I need this to get HDTV. So I started to look at DirectTV at circuit city. EVERYONE I talked to told me I would recieve CBS HD on DTV, EVERYONE! If you call DTV or Dish customer service they tell you you get HD locals "as long as there broadcasting them in HD, WRONG!! I did lots of research and it's a good thing I did. NO ONE knows what there talking about, well at least until the day the DISH installers came out and told me there is NO-WAY you will get CBS HD on DISH, It was only in the NY and LA markets and if you do not live there you need a waiver from your local affiliate to ALLOW you to watch NY or LA HD CBS. Needless to say I applied twice and got rejected. Don't get me wrong I am very happy with the HD content on Dish, but like you wanted my CBS ABC and NBC HD.
So I started research on OTA antennas. Again I got 10 different stories from "your 50 miles away you won't get anything", "oh..you need a giant antenna with a rotor for about $300". Well I decided to do my own research again and bought a channel master 4228 8 bay bow antenna, $79 bucks. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND YOUR SITUATION MIGHT BE DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE. This is a UHF ant. ONLY and measures about 2 feet by 3 feet. I stuck it up on a pole and using antennaweb.org and a compass I pulled in CBS, NBC, ABC and 6 other local channels with NO PROBLEM and NO PRE-AMP. All are in the 75-80 signal strength with no drop out. It hooked directly in to the 811 and I let it scan for DIGITAL channels. Best of all it's free OTA HD. I watched CSI for the first time last week imppresive. One last thing. A lot of HD content is UP CONVERTED or compressed so bad it looks like sh*t compared to a live game on ESPN HD. Live sports OTA are great. I can't wait for Monday night football to come around. Good luck, hope this helped.

 

[Grandude]

An addendum to joeadt's message. The CM 4228 antenna will pick up the high VHF signals. I get CH 12.1 on mine and the transmitter is 103 miles away. Now this is a fluke as the closer channels, all UHF, are troublesome to get due to terrain and possibly multipath problems and my flakey 811.

 

[sonic]

Hd Help

Thanks for the info...so let me get this straight...I would have to spend around another 75 bucks and just connect the antenna straight to the 811 box...hmm not bad...is there anything else that i should know...do i need to put the antenna outside on the roof or is the attic good enough...i live 20 miles away from downtown chicago and im sure the signal strength for the channels are pretty strong here...thanks again for your help...any websites you could direct me to for more info would be great.

Bob

 

[SimpleSimon]

http://www.antennaweb.org should be a good place to start. I think they have some kind of database and mapping thing to help you out, too.

 

[korsjs]

I lived in Glenview, IL before I came back down to Tampa and I could pull in all the HD channels from Chicago that where available at the time with a simple sit on your tv antenna. Before investing a lot of money into an antenna, try simple rabbit ears. You can get the adapter from radio shack. It is the best antenna I have used and it only cost seven bucks.

 

[GaryPen]

Sonic - I had good luck with an indoor antenna by Zenith called the Silver Sensor.

Korsjs - NO

 

[snathanb]

Sonic - I had good luck with an indoor antenna by Zenith called the Silver Sensor.

Korsjs - NO

A transplanted Yankee living in la-la land not voting for Bush? Say it ain't so!

 

[GaryPen]

I like to think of myself as a transplanted "Met".

BTW, "la la land" refers to the Los Angeles area. San Jose is about 400 miles north of there.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I like to think of myself as a transplanted "Met".

BTW, "la la land" refers to the Los Angeles area. San Jose is about 400 miles north of there.

Yeah, but the bay area is most definitely left of even la la land - just look at a map.

 

[ride525]

VOTE FOR BUSH

It's hard for me to vote for Bush when he lied about why we were going to Iraq to rid them of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Too many young Americans (not to speak of Iraquis) have died for no good reason.

 

[stratguy]

I like to think of myself as a transplanted "Met".

BTW, "la la land" refers to the Los Angeles area. San Jose is about 400 miles north of there.

Gary speaking of San Jose I use to play at a club in San Jose I think it's name was the Saddle Rack or Saddle Club not sure because it's been over 20 years. I also lived in Sacramento at the time.

Bob

 

[GaryPen]

I remember that place. It was huge. I remember drivng by there, looking in the parking lot, and thinking how I had never seen that many pickup trucks in one place in my entire life. It closed down a couple years after I moved here. I always imagined the inside to be like Bob's Country Bunker from the Blues Brothers movie. "We got both kinds of music - Country and Western."

 

[utexex79]

It's hard for me to vote for Bush when he lied about why we were going to Iraq to rid them of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Too many young Americans (not to speak of Iraquis) have died for no good reason.

seems like it would be just as hard to vote for Kerry, he told the same 'lie'...

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority
to use force-if necessary-to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe
that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real
and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9,2002
...and...
"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal,
murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a
particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to
miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his
continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction
... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is
real" - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003

...or maybe you want to draft Hillary instead...

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show
that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weap ons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda
members.. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will
continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare,
and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." - Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

in fact, name any Democrat and you can easily find similar quotes from them during the past couple of years, right up to the election year when thier speech changes from what is right for the country into what will help them get elected.

Sorry to get off the actual topic of the thread, but I'm getting really tired of hearing the same old misinformation spread around again and again.

back on the topic, I think if you are in Chicago, you actually can get the CBS HD satellite feed from either L.A. or N.Y. see qualification info at http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/locals/cbshd/index.shtml

 

[new_to_hdtv]

How 'bout keeping your political views where they belong ........... like on the bathroom stall walls? :down

 

[utexex79]

no need to get offensive, bud... I was just responding to the other post. Sorry that the truth bothers you so much.

 

[GaryPen]

Yeah, but the bay area is most definitely left of even la la land - just look at a map.

By golly, you're right! I better get down to my local communist recruitment office right away. I wouldn't want to get in trouble!

Or, maybe I should move back to NY. They are much farther to the right.

 

[SimpleSimon]

BTW, Gary, dunno if I told you - I lived in San Jose for a few months - then got my butt back here t the mountains.

 

[jimboeau]

no need to get offensive, bud... I was just responding to the other post. Sorry that the truth bothers you so much.

here here a voice of reason....