HR20 and OTA problem with one channel

[goober22]

I have an HR20-700 setup with an OTA antenna. I have a problem with the FOX channel. I have strong signal but the HR20 won't pull it in. I can pull it in okay with my tvs built-in tuner. Here is my readings and info:

CBS-4 = Digital 36 UHF = 55-57 tv tuner = 77 HR20 tuner
NBC-7 = Digital 8 VHF = 72-73 tv tuner = 77 HR20 tuner
ABC-13 = Digital 19 UHF = 66-69 tv tuner = 77 HR20 tuner
FOX-28 = Digital 9 VHF = 49-55 tv tuner = 69-76 HR20 tuner
PBS-11 = Digital 56 UHF = 28-35 tv tuner = 43-50 HR20 tuner

All channels and subs pull in fine except FOX on the HR20.
Fox28 is WPGX. My tv tuner pulls it in fine as long as the signal is 30+ but when I try to tune it on the HR20, I get "Searching for signal on the off air tuner... (771)". The HR20 constantly shows the signal level in the low 70s but never pulls anything in.

I have tried re-aiming the antenna and those are the best signals I can get and get all the channels. FOX is a VHF channel but so is the NBC one and it pulls in okay. Towers distances are 17-21 miles for ABC, NBC & FOX. CBS is 57 miles, PBS is 24.

One other note, my tv identifies it as 28- or 28-0 (instead of 28-1). The HR20 shows it as 28-1. Not sure if that matters.

Any ideas why the HR20 won't pull it in even though it says it has a good signal - and my tv will pull it.

Confused.

 

[jdspencer]

Not all tuners are created equal. My guess is that since your Fox channel is on the low end UHF, that it may be having multipath problems. The TV tuner seems to be able to lock on but the HR20 can't. A too strong signal can also overpower a tuner.

 

[goober22]

Just a followup in case others have a similar issue.

Above I said:

One other note, my tv identifies it as 28- or 28-0 (instead of 28-1). The HR20 shows it as 28-1. Not sure if that matters.

Well, it does. I contacted the station and found they had incorrect PSIP data as far as the Major/Minor channel assignments go in the data stream. They corrected it so that it now shows as 28-1 instead of 28-0. The HR20s pull it in now as does another digital set I had that would not.

 

[jcirinci]

Haven't been able to find this in the forum so my apologies if the answer is listed somewhere and I missed it....

That said I lost ABC 7-1 on my HR20-700 OTA as of the June cut over. I do have great signal strength on all of the other channels (same broadcast tower in San Francisco) and can receive 7-1 using that same cable drop from the OTA on a Series 3 Tivo - so ruled out signal reception issues / antenna pointing issues. I called DirecTV and they said that they've escalated this up to their advanced support (3 weeks now).

My guess is that when ABC 7 moved from UHF to VHF in June that DirecTV did not catch this on the 7-1 channel setting (although their Hi-Def local rebroadcast 7 is working). Has anyone else in the SF Bay area seen this issue? I will continue to ride DirecTV until I get some answer.