I'm having an issue with getting off-air channels in my DirecTV guide. I have a DirecTV DVR (HR20 i think). A friend from work is trying to sell me his off-air antenna that didn't do him much good (too far away). I connected up the antenna to my dvr and was able to go thru the antenna setup successfully. The screen showed me that it was downloading guide info and found quite a few off-air channels. I can even see the strength of the channels (most are around 70%), but when I go back to my DirecTV guide, no new channels to choose from. I spent about 45 mins on phone with DirecTV 1st level support then on to a supervisor. They are going to send out a tech on Wednesday. Has anybody else run into this issue? Any suggestions?
off-air channels not showing up in guide
- Thread starter gmitch393
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This should have been covered in the phone call to CSR, but did you by any chance happen to add these new off air channels to your favorites list? Or have you tried to change your favorites to ALL CHANNELS?
I don't even have a favorites list setup. I just went into the regular guide and looked for the newly (i wish) inserted channels. My local FOX channel is 35. The HD local FOX channel is 35.1. I see this channel (35.1) as one that was found during my setup and I can see the strength of the reception but don't see it on my regular guide.
So by default, you are looking at ALL CHANNELS? What happens if you rerun the Antenna Setup? Have you tried doing that from scratch? Even though it may take some time for the guide data (programming grid) to fill-in, the channels should still be listed, but just show something like data not available in the grid. Make sure that your ZipCode is correct in the setup as well. There may be a conflict between what you entered for your Zip and what D* has in it's database of channels for that area.
I've done the Antenna Setup at least 7 times. I even rest the info and tried again to no avail. I enetered corerect zip and it came back with Richmond as my local channels which is correct. Guess I'll see what the tech says on Wednesday but don't know what he'll do differnetly. A co-worker suggested taking the dvr receiver out of the mix and connect antenna cable straight to tv and see if it finds the channels. I'm going to try that tonight. Thanks,
The HR20 will only recognize off-air digital channels, not analog.
If your TV has an ATSC tuner built in, it should recognize and be able to show any off-air digital channels that it is receiving provided their signal strength is high enough.
Good luck and keep us posted on your results.
I could be way wrong here, but I would imagine that Richmond has digital signals, not analog. And isn't Richmond on the HDLIL active list?
gmitch I have an HR10 not the HR20. So I'm assuming it might be similar. It could be something as simple as updating your channel list.
On my HR10 I go into settings, channels, channel list. If a given channel is showing up in that list, I place a green thumbs up next to it and then, and only then, does it show in my epg. To remove a channel from that list I simply place a red thumbs down next to it. Hope it works out. Good luck.
P.S. This is of course assuming that the HR20 actually can display OTA digital channels in the guide. Cant see why it wouldnt.
Maybe your antenna isn't receiving the HD UHF signals. Connecting the antenna to your TV, assuming it has a digital tuner built in, sounds like a good idea.
I just got my 20 yesterday. I hooked up the antenna, ran the setup and it found, I think, 56 digital channels in the LA area. It then incorporated them into the guide. The only confusion, if you can call it that, is that for example channel 2, CBS, it has three listings: 2 - which is the HD digital version of 2 coming from the satellite (also duplicated around channel 80 something), a second 2, which is the analog channel 2 from the satellite, and 2-1, the OTA digital signal.
I just got my 20 yesterday. I hooked up the antenna, ran the setup and it found, I think, 56 digital channels in the LA area. It then incorporated them into the guide. The only confusion, if you can call it that, is that for example channel 2, CBS, it has three listings: 2 - which is the HD digital version of 2 coming from the satellite (also duplicated around channel 80 something), a second 2, which is the analog channel 2 from the satellite, and 2-1, the OTA digital signal.
We don't have quite that many but we do have:
2 D* feed (non-HD)
2-1 HD OTA - NBC
2-2 SD OTA - Some crappy all-music video channel
4 D* feed (non-HD)
4-1 HD OTA
5 D* feed (non-HD)
5-1 HD OTA - CBS
5-2 SD OTA - Weather Radar
7 D* feed (non-HD)
7-1 SD OTA - PBS/National Feed
7-2 SD OTA - PBS/The South Carolina Channel
7-3 HD OTA - PBS/HD
13 D* feed (non-HD)
24 D* feed (non-HD)
24-1 HD OTA - FOX
36-1 SD OTA - MyTV (Same as Channel 13 on D*)
And with all that, D* does a good job of filling the EPG and with the favorites lists, we can filter out the ones we don't want so we don't have too many locals on display.
Oh, and I am using a Phillips 51-element antenna without any amps or anything. Is there an amp in your line that might be garbling the signals somehow? And how did the tech visit work out?
but we do have:2 D* feed (non-HD)
2-1 HD OTA - NBC
2-2 SD OTA - Some crappy all-music video channel
4 D* feed (non-HD)
4-1 HD OTA
5 D* feed (non-HD)
5-1 HD OTA - CBS
5-2 SD OTA - Weather Radar
7 D* feed (non-HD)
7-1 SD OTA - PBS/National Feed
7-2 SD OTA - PBS/The South Carolina Channel
7-3 HD OTA - PBS/HD
13 D* feed (non-HD)
24 D* feed (non-HD)
24-1 HD OTA - FOX
36-1 SD OTA - MyTV (Same as Channel 13 on D*)
And with all that, D* does a good job of filling the EPG and with the favorites lists, we can filter out the ones we don't want so we don't have too many locals on display.
Oh, and I am using a Phillips 51-element antenna without any amps or anything. Is there an amp in your line that might be garbling the signals somehow? And how did the tech visit work out?
OTA receiver - sensitive?
I am just about a new D* customer mainly for the new HD - but I need to know how sensitive the OTA tuner is? Does it do ok. Has anyone been able to compare it to anything else. My old VOOM unit does quite well ... better than my old E* 6000u HD receiver. But several of my digital channels are weak, and any tuner that does not do as well, will likely not give me my locals in HD.
I am just about a new D* customer mainly for the new HD - but I need to know how sensitive the OTA tuner is? Does it do ok. Has anyone been able to compare it to anything else. My old VOOM unit does quite well ... better than my old E* 6000u HD receiver. But several of my digital channels are weak, and any tuner that does not do as well, will likely not give me my locals in HD.
There is also a setting (Menu > Help&Settings > Setup > Sat&Ant > Antenna Setup > Edit Off-Air Channels) to make sure that the off-air channels are even available in the guide at all. OTA channels are different in that you have to select them in this separate menu for them to even show up under the "All Channels" filter. If you don't have them marked on that separate screen, they won't ever show up in your guide.
And, on the flip side, for those of you that have too many channels to sift through, you can use this feature to remove some of the extra ones, if you want to.
Once you get the OTA setup done correctly so that they are in the all channels list, Favorites is also an option, of course...
And, on the flip side, for those of you that have too many channels to sift through, you can use this feature to remove some of the extra ones, if you want to.
Once you get the OTA setup done correctly so that they are in the all channels list, Favorites is also an option, of course...
Also, any time you try to redo your antenna setup, make sure you use the "Reset Off-Air Setting" option first, before you re-run the initial setup. Otherwise, the changes may not take.
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