Voom in Phoenix

[SoupMama]

Phoenix PBS OTA schedule doesn't match antennae!

Here's something that is wacky. Anyone got an explanation?
Here in Phoenix our PBS affiliate is KAET Channel 8.
The PBS signal is received via the OTA. The channel guide lists three stations: 8-1 (HD broadcast), 8-2 (standard broadcast), and 8-3 (seems to be the exact same programming as 8-2).
The 8-1 schedule is always different than 8-2 and 8-3, since its all HD programming. Here's the weird thing: the programming on 8-2 is always 30 minutes ahead of schedule. If I use a regular rabbit-ear antenna to tune into PBS 8, the programming is on schedule. Additionally, regular PBS always has "KAET" in the lower right hand corner. None of the OTA channels have that.

So that begs the question: what am I viewing via the Voom OTA?

 

[wasch_24]

I'm not in Phoenix so this is pure speculation. Go to www.zap2it.com and see if their schedule is also off by thirty minutes. This guide is the source for the Voom PG. As far as the missing logo goes, your PBS station may not be broadcasting the logo with their digital broadcast which is separate from their analog/cable TV broadcast. What are you connecting the rabbit ears to? What do you mean by "regular PBS"?

 

[SoupMama]

Nope, the zap-to-it schedule is not ahead by thirty minutes.
What I mean by "regular PBS":
Before I got my OTA relocated and properly tuned, I went out and bought a set of rabbit ears so I could watch local stations. I connected this antenna directly to the antenna port on the back of the TV. For lack of a better term, "regular PBS" refers to the SD 4:3 broadcast that is received and displayed via this connection (likewise, it also refers to the local PBS broadcast carried by the local analog cable provider).

 

[wasch_24]

SoupMama,
Have you tried forcing your STB to download new PG info by unplugging it for ten seconds and then plugging it back in? Try this as it forces the STB to rebbot and it will download the PG again. This will take at least ten minutes. It will occur faster if you do not touch anything until it is done.

 

[slater1182]

I live in Scottsdale 101 and FLW/Bell area. Anyone living near, having issues? thanks

 

[RPacion]

I live in Scottsdale 101 and FLW/Bell area. Anyone living near, having issues? thanks

Slater, I'm up in Anthem and had Voom installed on 7/5. The only problem I've had so far is when I re-scanned for the local digitals, the STB found 12.1 on BOTH UHF 36 and UHF 37 -- very strange. Now I cannot tune into 12.1, but instead get KSAZ FOX on 12.1 (as well as on 10.1)
What kind of issues are you having?

 

[SoupMama]

Anyone having any issues this morning/today with the overcast skies and humidity?

 

[jbcaro]

Install complete...almost

Well, I had VOOM installed this morning. Was supposed to be yesterday morning but install company called and said that installer had a "family emergency" and couldn't make until today.

Install went fairly smoothly. Was completed in about 1.5 hours. I had a 2 receiver install done. Since the pre-install email I received from Install Inc stated that I had to provide a multi-switch, I called the installer and asked what I should get. Well on their recommendation I purchased one. When installer arrived, he stated that he provided the multi-switch and that mine was not necessary. Hope I can return it.

Since I had pre-fished a string through the walls for the cable run it went pretty quick. While he installed the antenna's, I ran the cable through the walls and attic. Very hot in the attic in Arizona but doable. Had to remind him to ground the antenna's. He stated that he only had about 5 feet (yes that is correct, 5 feet) and that he would have to come back on Monday to do the grounding. Other than that, everything is fine. OTA signal strength = ~97 using the Winegard antenna. Sat signal strength = ~ 92. I'm a happy camper.

I am able to receive all of my locals. NBC is having issues now and again but they are all there. Have latest software (6.00) and found that you can mask out the locals that showing in the guide but not receivable. Picture quality so far is pretty good. Some of the local channels are shifted to the right on the screen on both of my TV's. Not sure if this is something that is fixable or not.

All in all it has gone well. Hopefully the picture shift can be fixed. Anyone know who I need to tell about the picture shift??

I did ask the installer if he was doing a lot of installs here in the Phoenix, AZ area. He kind of paused and said that mostly he was doing service call to fix issues. He would not elaborate as to what the major problems were.

Will keep you posted if there are any changes to how my VOOM is working.

later,
jbcaro

 

[BumpyAZ]

In the sytem settings menu on the new software, there is an option to shift the picture horizontally and vertically. I havent played with it yet so I cant tell you how well it works. Im in gilbert about 15 miles from the antennas and have the winegard. I get all the locals except for 21 (TBN?) which I dont think Id watch anyways. Also dont get 7 or 9 but antennaweb tells me those are flagstaff and tuscon channels. Both my sat and ota signal strength are typically in the low 90's. My only problems seems to be the box locking up when changing between channels with different resolutions when in native mode. If I use 1080i, the box rarely locks up. Also since saturday, one of my boxes doesnt have any info on the program guide. I called to report it and they told me it will be back on tues. My only other complaint is the lack of HGTV but Im sure we've all heard enough of that.

 

[zapgod]

I now recieve channel 12 NBC in Phoenix AZ! Here's how I did it.

I want to say upfront that I am no sattelite/cable guru, just a computer tech.
I own the DSR550 with new VOOM software, I am from Phoenix AZ. When I first recieved my VOOM on July 3rd everything went well except for one thing, I did not recieve NBC channel 12. The tech said it was a new software/box problem and preceeded to replace the box. It still didn't work. I called VOOM and they new exactly what I was talking about because their had been many complaints in the Phoenix area. They dispatched another installer to replace the box and the new antenna. It still didn't work. I called VOOM to see if there were any other options, they said that they dont guarantee OTA channels. Great. At 97 percent signal strength, and the fact that NBC studios is only 2 miles away from me, I just couldn't understand why.

Anyway, screwing around, I went into system settings, installer menu, installation wizard, scan local channels, and noticed on RF36 and RF37 they both had channel 12-1 (NBC). I redid the OTA aim and it still pulled in both RF channels with 12-1 (NBC). I thought to myself that their has to be a conflict. So i redid the OTA aim, once it landed on RF36 and found 12-1 (NBC) I stopped the scan immediately. I went to channel 12 and I was able to recieve the channel!!!

The unit then froze, and on subsequent reboots it was still freezing. I turned it off for an hour and then booted it up. All is good and I recieve NBC. I guess the reciever had to re-map or load software or something.

Long story short... I redid the OTA aim, once it hit the first instance of NBC i stopped the aim, rebooted, all is well.

Does this make sense?
Thanks for listening

 

[The Stone Man]

Yes, this all makes sense. You have the newest firmware, since your installation was recent. But it boils down to aiming the OTA correctly, which your installer did not do--but you did.

The 'old-timers' around here still have version 5.68, which does not include the OTA scanning feature, so this is good info for us if we ever actually get the new version. The freezing/unfreezing of the STB is an unrelated problem, addressed in a sticky.

If you stopped the autoscan at NBC, do you still have the other local channels?

 

[rkr0923]

I'd try that...........if I had the software!!!

 

[The Stone Man]

rkr--don't do it. Then you will have to complain about not getting the Phoenix, Arizona channels in Alabama.

 

[Sean Mota]

I want to say upfront that I am no sattelite/cable guru, just a computer tech.
I own the DSR550 with new VOOM software, I am from Phoenix AZ. When I first recieved my VOOM on July 3rd everything went well except for one thing, I did not recieve NBC channel 12. The tech said it was a new software/box problem and preceeded to replace the box. It still didn't work. I called VOOM and they new exactly what I was talking about because their had been many complaints in the Phoenix area. They dispatched another installer to replace the box and the new antenna. It still didn't work. I called VOOM to see if there were any other options, they said that they dont guarantee OTA channels. Great. At 97 percent signal strength, and the fact that NBC studios is only 2 miles away from me, I just couldn't understand why.

Anyway, screwing around, I went into system settings, installer menu, installation wizard, scan local channels, and noticed on RF36 and RF37 they both had channel 12-1 (NBC). I redid the OTA aim and it still pulled in both RF channels with 12-1 (NBC). I thought to myself that their has to be a conflict. So i redid the OTA aim, once it landed on RF36 and found 12-1 (NBC) I stopped the scan immediately. I went to channel 12 and I was able to recieve the channel!!!

The unit then froze, and on subsequent reboots it was still freezing. I turned it off for an hour and then booted it up. All is good and I recieve NBC. I guess the reciever had to re-map or load software or something.

Long story short... I redid the OTA aim, once it hit the first instance of NBC i stopped the aim, rebooted, all is well.

Does this make sense?
Thanks for listening

Zapgod,

Welcome; this is good investigative work. I would pass the information to VOOM because it may help them determine why two RF channels are picking up the same signal. Please send me an email with your zipcode and this information and I would send it to them.

 

[zapgod]

If you stopped the autoscan at NBC, do you still have the other local channels?

Amazingly enough I do, but it omitted some of the station identification stuff, but it comes through.
I'm not so sure that it is an installer issue, all you can do is start the autoscan and then wait for it to stop. Just some wierd VOOM technical error.
The OTA manual aim isn't so manual. I can't pick and choose channels that I want to map and others i want to discard. All you can do is start the process and then you hit the red button to stop it (in my case on RF36).
Sean, I sent you an email from my Cox account. :up

 

[azquadfan]

Hello all,

I just had voom installed last week and have the same channel 12 issue. I also have a problem with WB61 not having sound. I have two receivers and both have the same issue. Voom sent out a tech on Tuesday and could not find the problem. The tech finally gave up and told me to try and wait a week or two and maybe the problem will get resolved. I hope they get this resolved soon! I wonder if everyone in Phoenix is having the same problem?

 

[azquadfan]

Hey, I just want to thank zapgod for the tip on getting channel 12 to work! I followed the process that he noted and after trying twice, it worked. I also have sound on WB61. I don't know if the process was related but after the second reboot, I had sound.

Again, thanks zapgod and thanks to all that help people out here. This is a great place for VOOM info!!!

Tony

 

[zapgod]

Sweet! :up

I am so glad that it worked. For a minute I thought I was off my rocker or if it was some big coincidence.
I wonder if this same issue could help other cities?

Ernie

 

[ROLLZROYCE]

Anyone in the Prescott or Flagstaff area had any luck receiving OTA?

I cannot get a single channel!

 

[jonkomar]

zapgod,

Thanks a million for this fix! It worked when I stopped the scan on 36. Then, I went ahead and had the Voom box rescan the local channels again without stopping. It stopped looking for RF 37 and Channel 12 came in perfectly! I was just watching Jay Leno in HD tonight and laughing my butt off! Thanks to you, I knew excatly what to do when 12 first didn't show up.

It's interesting that the installer guy knew about the potential issue, but didn't know what the fix was. Thanks to you, zapgod, he'll know how to set up his customers from now on because I showed him how.

slater1182, you asked your question months ago, but I do live right off the 101 freeway at Thunderbird. All of the local stations and Voom channels come in perfectly. The installer set me up last weekend during that vigirous rain storm, so I know there's no worries of "rain fade" as mentioned in other forums.