Outdoor Digital TV antenna and recording Programs

[mikester]

Yes, radio signals can be all over the place, but I would not have thought with your line of sight. I do not have line of sight, mine has to hop over an island but I was tickled to strap it to the side of the chimney, point it to the bulk of the transmitters and not have to make a roof penetration. I have a hip roof, the gutter wraps the entire house so even mounting off the eave somehow with guy wires would be problematic.

Both transmitter and receiving antennas have peaks and valleys when it comes to signal strength, signal strength is not uniform. You can be line of sight from a tower and still get a bad signal if you are in the wrong direction.

Heres a good primer
Common TV Antenna Types

Example Resource for HDTV transmitter channel map
Toronto, Ontario & Buffalo, New York OTA HDTV Channel Map

I had a good reference somewhere comparing HDTV antenna radiation plots but I cant find it. Helps you compare which antenna will give you the best results for your location and available signals.

 

[goeduck]

We had a re-scan required on October 19 and I meant to post this link since I never knew why.

What is Happening? TVAnswers.org

It has to do with de-conflicting with wireless services. One of my stations that would drop fairly often is much more stable now. The signal was strong on the scan, but it would pixelate and drop. Now I know why.

 

[goeduck]

Actually, it's a process to open up new space that will be used for wireless services. All the channels above 38 have been eliminated, so they've had to move to different channels in phases. In the US, about 70% of TV stations have to relocate to a different channel. Depending on locations, four more phases of the moves have to be completed by next summer. Here are the remaining phases and completion dates. Stations must give public service notices 30 days before they move and the date they will do their move.

Phase ---- Completion date

7 ----------- 1/17/2020

8 ----------- 3/13/2020

9 ----------- 5/1/2020

10 ---------- 7/3/2020

What does that mean to OTA signal quality?

 

[bunyip]

We have some areas where transmitters are in different locations/directions and two antennas are commonplace joining them together with a diplexer rather than using a rotator, also means you can use a PVR whilst watching another channel if it is one of the offending channels.

 

[drssg]

FWIW, my TiVo channel listings have been getting a little wonky with all the recent activity. There ends up being a discrepancy between what's really there vs. what TiVo thinks is supposed to be there. I suppose it'll smooth out before long.

 

[goeduck]

Two weeks on the clock now since the Oct 19 FCC required frequency changes and rescan.... so far much better! The various trouble stations, particularly the local CBS station, never drop out now. I used to have about 3 or 4 of the 60 that I get that would drop out. No longer! So de-conflicting the frequencies was a good thing. :thumbsup:

 

[drssg]

Mine is also doing well now. There was a transition period where TiVo was confused about the current state.

I had some channels listed twice in the guide. One would have a signal, but no programming info (name of show, etc.). The other would have programming info, but no signal.

 

[bunyip]

A problem we have encountered is that with the addition of sub channels to a main network some have changed the audio format so we get perfect video and nil audio, we had two 'old' TV's we had to replace,, they were 4 years old with incompatible audio, most are using MPEG4 and some sub channels are using a different format for the audio.
Some TV's have the ability to change this somewhere in the menu but to date I have not been able to find anything.

 

[Crazydad]

I do not know if anyone has mentioned ATSC 3.0 yet. The tv tuners we all use now are ATSC 1.0 every since since they made the mandated switch to HD over 10 years ago. There was a 2.0 but the 3.0 standard made it obsolete before it came out. 3.0 will provide for 4K broadcasts and more channels. This is not mandated and voluntary so no hard date to switch but stations are already transmitting.

You will need a tuner box or tv with NEXTGEN TV tuners as that is what they will call it. They also want you connected to the internet to use all the features. Good news is stations will have to keep transmitting in 1.0 for five years after the switch so 2025 until you might have to deal with this but if your area has a bunch more channels you might want to change sooner.

I have a TiVo roamio with all in service so no monthly fees and happy with it. The newest TiVo EDGE does not have 3.0 so I do not think I would invest in it. I will post some links below for you to read.

Atsc 3.0 explained.

A deeper dive and explanation.

Cities getting it.

Edit add; January 7th is the big electronic show CES and we will see the NEXTGEN stuff that is coming out and the TVs
that are getting them.

 

[goeduck]

It looks like I am in one of the broadcast areas for deployment in 2020. If all it is to me is buying a new Tablo that has ATSC 3 when it comes out I am game. I would like to get enough stations to get my wife off of YouTubeTV and Philo. What seems odd to me is you need the Internet for commercials if I read that right? I am not sure why anyone would want that.