ABC HD - 5.1

[ISUFan22]

In-laws (south side of DSM, not far from the airport) are still having problems with 5.1. A couple weeks ago, I put a new antenna (link) on their roof and pointed it north.

When we checked, 5.1 came in perfectly. I e-mailed him today, asking how the antenna was working. Said he's only able to get 5.1 part of the time. He said when they do get it, much of the time it's unwatchable as the signal is skipping and pixelated.

Any suggestions?

[wonkadog]

I had that problem in Ames last night but our antenna is just on top of our t.v. in the basement. Kind of surprised it works so well actually, it ended up picking up 5.1 pretty good for most of the night. Not sure on the best way to fix that sort of thing...

[Wesley]

So you are saying you either get it on a good day or you do not get a picture? I have noticed some station as in Omaha are 1080- and big or small picture and others are 720. Looks like the stations themselves have not totally bought into HD. Many second signal stations being broadcast also. Nebraska TV has 5 separate broadcast signals.

[The_Architect]

ABCs hi def sucks so bad. Not to mention ABC locally is the worst signal out there.

[brianhos]

The problem is ch5 is in a diff range than the other channels, so I know some people could tune it to get 5 really well or get 8,13,17 reall well. Other than a bigger (more bays) antenna or working on the aiming, I have nothing.

[brianhos]

according to antennaweb you need a medium directional for the dsm airport.

[ISUFan22]

And that is what I just put on their roof, a medium multi-directional antenna (linked in the first post).

[Wesley]

Like a radar site?

[Cyclone90]

WOI's HD signal has been on low power for awhile. It's not surprising the picture is shaky. See the news story at the top of their webpage. LINK


Digital Transmission Problems - Updated Monday, November 5

Updated: Nov 5, 2007 08:50 AM

Work continues on our digital tower. We have been at low power since our outage back on October 1.

Our tower crew was able to make very good progress over the last 5 days. The flex line was put up on the tower and mounted to the antenna. The antenna was checked out and everything is good with the antenna. There is one last thing the tower crew needs to do and that is to get the power divider hooked up. Because of winds on Friday and Saturday night they were not able to finish up the last part. Forecast is windy for tonight (Monday) and decrease as the week goes on.

We still have a temporary antenna up. We are broadcasting our digital signal at low power.

Viewers are still able to see our digital signal through Mediacom cable, as well as our analog signal though the air, cable and satellite.

Again, we appreciate your patience in this matter.

[ISUFan22]

Thanks for the info/link!

[jbhtexas]

Seems like low power transmission is the problem here...but another thing to consider with HD is multipath ("ghosting" in the old days). The newer receivers with the 5th generation HD tuners are supposed to be able to deal with mutlipath, but if you have an older receiver with a previous generation tuner, multipath will wreak havoc.

Folks who have HVAC equipment in their attics (like many of us do down here) often have mutlipath issues when trying to use attic antennas, because the signals bounce off all the ducting and equipment in the attic...

On another issue...I'm using rabbit ears sitting on top of my plasma, and often have to fool with them to get reception. Yesterday, the rabbit ears fell off on to the floor behind the TV, and reception is now wonderful on almost all the channels...can't beat that for scientific antenna placement...

[superdorf]

WOIDT has been down about 4 times in the last 2 years. Last year they were down for over a month. I don't understand why they have so many problems... 8,11,13,17, and 23 have never been down as far as I know.

Also, on DishNetwork the ch-5 signal is nearly unwatchable.