the switch thingie died I think

[Jim S.]

Dee, I'm confused as to why you haven't got somebody to figure out your hot ground problem, or whatever it is. You really shouldn't be getting shocks from anything other than power cables and maybe the phone line. If things were normal, you might be able to get a tiny spark from your satellite cables (although you shouldn't be disconnecting them with the power on, it's bad for the equipment) but you absolutely shouldn't feel anything from them. And you shouldn't be able to see or feel anything ever from the cable internet line (no matter what they told you), any audio or video lines, or your antenna.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee, I'm confused as to why you haven't got somebody to figure out your hot ground problem, or whatever it is. You really shouldn't be getting shocks from anything other than power cables and maybe the phone line. If things were normal, you might be able to get a tiny spark from your satellite cables (although you shouldn't be disconnecting them with the power on, it's bad for the equipment) but you absolutely shouldn't feel anything from them. And you shouldn't be able to see or feel anything ever from the cable internet line (no matter what they told you), any audio or video lines, or your antenna.

Um. I guess both my dad and me sort of let it slip through the cracks.
Dad was going to come look at it a while back but I guess he got side tracked.
I just forgot about it totally. Until I was getting zapped trying to hook up my ghettotenna yesterday. And to deal with it I just went and got my dishwashing gloves and that was that.

It stings enough to make me drop it, it's a very unpleasant zap. I can think of 80 bazillion other things I would rather do than touch those wires.

I guess I need to call dad and ask him again about checking it for me.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh, and the antenna tv, I guess you call it OTA, well, I'm soooooo unimpressed.
Only one channel seems to make a half hearted effort to show real HD tv.

KFDM 6.1 shows it with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, letter box style. But, 90% of what they show inside that letter box, is shown with the sides also chopped off, grey bars on the left and right, creating a small, square picture inside what should be a wide picture.

So in effect, there is a black border about 2 inches thick around all four sides of the picture. What a rip off!

A lot of the other channels that are billed as HD fill the whole screen and are fuzzy and blurry. The quality is horrible.

The local stations are just sending out a crummy picture. My folks have stated the same, that even on their brand spanking new wide screen HD tv that all the local channel are just not living up to what they should.

Here's a sample of the evening news from KFDM

 

[Mr Tony]

some newscasts arent HD yet. In fact depending on who the owner is of the station, maybe only prime time is HD

You should be able to "stretch" or "zoom" the ppic to fill the whole screen

 

[zamar23]

Dee,

Now its good time for you to seriously look at 6-footer for C-band, as I suggested in another your thread. Buy a 4-footer for your folks, and 6-footer for yourself to get a lot more fan (including a lot of music channels). As to OTA reception, since you don't have cable TV at all (and no old cable around with a canceled sub), and since you say all analog OTA in your area was switched off, you just need Antenna(s) for ATSC reception. Read Stampeder's FAQ a couple of times and come back - you might need a standalone directional Yagee or large VHF Antenna for weaker "This" station, and a signal combiner (diplexer) to gather all signals to your card. All this stuff sounds like a lot more fan than you ever imagined just a few months ago.

 

[Dee_Ann]

hmmm..

What about some of the giant clunkers I have around? Some of them are enormous. Can they be made to work?

 

[zamar23]

Show us your treasures - clunkers I mean. Keep in mind however, OTA Antennas are product of careful engineering design and artful modeling, you can't replace them with a dish mount pipe like you did, unless the station is nearby and signal is very strong. C-band dishes are a bit simpler stuff, but their LNBF sets are peaces of virtuoso knowledge based design instead. The old big dishes you might have are offset type, they won't work well, if at all, with C-band LNBFs designed for a prime focus dish (where LNBF is mounted on its axis point).

 

[Dee_Ann]

Show us your treasures - clunkers I mean. Keep in mind however, OTA Antennas are product of careful engineering design and artful modeling, you can't replace them with a dish mount pipe like you did, unless the station is nearby and signal is very strong. C-band dishes are a bit simpler stuff, but their LNBF sets are peaces of virtuoso knowledge based design instead. The old big dishes you might have are offset type, they won't work well, if at all, with C-band LNBFs designed for a prime focus dish (where LNBF is mounted on its axis point).

Oh my little ghettotenna wire isn't attached to that old satellite pole, it's just twist tied to a nail sticking out of the side of the house. I was in a hurry to get off that ladder, I do not like heights. And I also didn't expect it to really work, it was just something I thought I would fix up to test the new tv card to see if it would really work or not. I was shocked that it actually worked, much less worked so well.

I do need to do some shopping around still to find the right one as the station I most of all want to get is KPLC (carries this tv) in Lake Charles. http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=KPLC

I was playing around on that tvfool website (I'm still mystified by the name) and looked up the info on the station. It appears to be about 60 miles from me.

I'm wondering now if I should think about putting up a tall antenna on a pole like at my dad's house. Dad said their antenna is about 25' high. I only have a one story house so I don't think I could put one up that tall.

I wonder if trees block the new tv like they do on satellite?


I still need to get out to the lot and get some pictures of those giant dishes.
I need to get my dad to go out there with me, I'm afraid to go there alone.

 

[zamar23]

Dee,

Your OTA related questions may be better addressed at SatGuys' Digital Over the Air (OTA) section and well appointed OVER-THE-AIR DIGITAL TELEVISION RECEPTION FAQ: New to OTA? Start here! source simply because a lot more solid OTA fans are hanging around there, and these sources address US regional OTA reception issues, while Stampeder's section is predominantly Canadian reception wise.

 

[Mr Tony]

I do need to do some shopping around still to find the right one as the station I most of all want to get is KPLC (carries this tv) in Lake Charles. TV Query Results -- Video Division (FCC) USA

I was playing around on that tvfool website (I'm still mystified by the name) and looked up the info on the station. It appears to be about 60 miles from me.

I posted some info on the station here
http://www.satelliteguys.us/1938245-post38.html

I wonder if trees block the new tv like they do on satellite?

no. My antenna is looking right at some trees and it works just fine

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee,

Your OTA related questions may be better addressed at SatGuys' Digital Over the Air (OTA) section and well appointed OVER-THE-AIR DIGITAL TELEVISION RECEPTION FAQ: New to OTA? Start here! source simply because a lot more solid OTA fans are hanging around there, and these sources address US regional OTA reception issues, while Stampeder's section is predominantly Canadian reception wise.

Ooops..

Yes, I suppose that I have gotten waaaaay off topic here. Please accept my apology. I'm pretty bad about that, getting off topic and rambling on about this and that.

Maybe the operators can move this to the right place?

Sorry guys..

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh HA!!!!!!!!

NOW I see what shows are HD on local antenna. :rant::rant::rant::rant: FREAKING SPORTS... :rant::rant::rant::rant:

They can't put anything on tv in HD but stupid, retarded sports.
RIP OFF!! UNFAIR!!

Now THIS is something I'm going to complain about to ALL the networks and stations. This really p:s me off!

 

[Mr Tony]

prime time shows usually are too

CBS is really big on HD

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, one thing I can say for local tv, which amazes me totally,
It's pouring down rain here, hard.
Satellite is totally out. All channels on all satellites.

Local tv on my ghettotenna is coming in fine. I'm shocked.
Only real problem with that though is there is nothing on local tv to watch now, sports on just about all channels. Eh...

Well, you lose a little, you win a little, you lose a little.............................

 

[Mr Tony]

Heck I have more options here in Minneapolis OTA wise and there still isnt anything on local TV

its either paid programs, crappy movies, or the ballgame

 

[Dee_Ann]

Heck I have more options here in Minneapolis OTA wise and there still isnt anything on local TV

its either paid programs, crappy movies, or the ballgame

Wow..

So far I get 7 OTA channels and several of them are duplicate content of other channels. So that really gives me about 5 OTA channels. And today, there is *nothing* on them.

There is supposed to be a special running locally about hurricane preparedness but it's been bumped off by a stupid baseball game and it's little boys playing baseball and the dummy announcer is holding an ESPN microphone.
Why isn't that on ESPN where it belongs? Sports need to stick to sports channels. And since when did little boys start playing baseball on TV?
What happened to parents driving to the little ball field in the corner of the city park? Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Sorry for being so b***hy, I just really despise sports of all types. It's just stupid.
I don't get it, guys think it's a religion or something.

 

[Mr Tony]

That is the Little League World Series. That is usually kinda fun to watch

ESPN & ABC are owned by the same company so anything on ABC will show "ESPN" in the corner

most of their sports are "your watching __________ (sport) on ESPN on ABC"

digital OTA is line of site whereas satellite is the sky. Since it has to travel 22000 miles up through dark rain clouds, that is why satellite is killed
OTA usually holds tight during downpours

 

[Anole]

- two points:

Well, one thing I can say for local tv, which amazes me totally,
It's pouring down rain here, hard.
Satellite is totally out. All channels on all satellites.

Local tv on my ghettotenna is coming in fine. I'm shocked.
Only real problem with that though is there is nothing on local tv to watch now, sports on just about all channels. Eh...

Well, you lose a little, you win a little, you lose a little.............................

Okay, let me make two useful points while you are noticing these problems:

1). C-band is fairly rain-resistant. That's the big satellite dishes.
They are on a lower frequency than the small dish signals, and generally survive rain.
Even small-dish reception (Ku-band) is generally more solid on BUDs, but that's another matter.

2). A PVR (personal video recorder), either something like a Visionsat IV-200 or a function on your existing computer ...
... will record desirable shows for you to watch when "nothing is on" !
As a bonus, you can skip forward through commercials if that is a problem.
I even make my own DVDs out of such recordings, but that's another matter.