Incredibly poor reliability of Tampa locals!

[mchaney]

Well, once again I missed a show due to some D* foul up. Thursday night's Survivor China was nothing but an hour of "No need to call. We have lost the feed to your locals" or some such BS. Before that, it was Fox going out with some oddball error code displayed, screwing up a good 10 minutes or so of "Kitchen Nightmares". I also get a lot of pixelization and dropouts from time to time: usually 1-2 seconds and I know it isn't me, my equipment, or the dish alignment. I'm sure others have posted here about the individual occurrences as I know they affect everyone getting Tampa local channels, but I'd like to ask the general (obvious) question here: why are the Tampa D* locals so unreliable? Is there some issue with them because the Tampa stations are newer additions and they are working stuff out or what? Anyone know what is going on? Getting a little frustrated. I don't think this could be anything but a D* issue because when I had BrightHouse cable, I had none of these problems so I certainly don't think it has anything to do with the local stations or their feeds.

Thanks,
Mike

[gully_foyle]

Well, once again I missed a show due to some D* foul up. Thursday night's Survivor China was nothing but an hour of "No need to call. We have lost the feed to your locals" or some such BS. Before that, it was Fox going out with some oddball error code displayed, screwing up a good 10 minutes or so of "Kitchen Nightmares". I also get a lot of pixelization and dropouts from time to time: usually 1-2 seconds and I know it isn't me, my equipment, or the dish alignment. I'm sure others have posted here about the individual occurrences as I know they affect everyone getting Tampa local channels, but I'd like to ask the general (obvious) question here: why are the Tampa D* locals so unreliable? Is there some issue with them because the Tampa stations are newer additions and they are working stuff out or what? Anyone know what is going on? Getting a little frustrated. I don't think this could be anything but a D* issue because when I had BrightHouse cable, I had none of these problems so I certainly don't think it has anything to do with the local stations or their feeds.

Thanks,
MikeThere's a difference between getting local station signals to the local cable company, and getting them to a satellite 22,000 miles up over Peru. I'd expect that some station-to-D*regional center links are still being ironed out.

[d0ug]

Well, once again I missed a show due to some D* foul up. Thursday night's Survivor China was nothing but an hour of "No need to call. We have lost the feed to your locals" or some such BS. Before that, it was Fox going out with some oddball error code displayed, screwing up a good 10 minutes or so of "Kitchen Nightmares". I also get a lot of pixelization and dropouts from time to time: usually 1-2 seconds and I know it isn't me, my equipment, or the dish alignment. I'm sure others have posted here about the individual occurrences as I know they affect everyone getting Tampa local channels, but I'd like to ask the general (obvious) question here: why are the Tampa D* locals so unreliable? Is there some issue with them because the Tampa stations are newer additions and they are working stuff out or what? Anyone know what is going on? Getting a little frustrated. I don't think this could be anything but a D* issue because when I had BrightHouse cable, I had none of these problems so I certainly don't think it has anything to do with the local stations or their feeds.

Thanks,
Mike


I saw this same problem. It is the 1st problem I have seen with the Tampa locals sofar. I just made the HD upgrade last week.

[SledDog]

That's the reason I have an OTA that bypasses my D* receiver....

[mchaney]

That's the reason I have an OTA that bypasses my D* receiver....

I was going to do that, but none of the cities around here have all four major networks. There's no CBS affiliate anywhere near Tampa for example. The nearest one is 57 miles from me. Not really work the trouble when I can't get all the networks.

Mike

[d0ug]

I was going to do that, but none of the cities around here have all four major networks. There's no CBS affiliate anywhere near Tampa for example. The nearest one is 57 miles from me. Not really work the trouble when I can't get all the networks.

Mike

No CBS affiliate near Tampa? Channel 10 http://www.wtsp.com is Tampa's CBS affiliate.

[Larry]

No CBS affiliate near Tampa? Channel 10 http://www.wtsp.com is Tampa's CBS affiliate.

Correct! But the tower is located in Holiday (or somewhere near Holiday) NW of Tampa. Depending on the OP's location he might have problems receiving channel 10. Fortunately for me, I live close enough to the tower that I can aim my antenna at the farm in Riverview and usually get a reasonable picture on channel 10 from the back side of my antenna. I say usually because channel 10 doesn't seem to be the most reliable source for HD (as they showed this past week)...even though they have been at it about the longest of any station in the area.

[d0ug]

Correct! But the tower is located in Holiday (or somewhere near Holiday) NW of Tampa. Depending on the OP's location he might have problems receiving channel 10. Fortunately for me, I live close enough to the tower that I can aim my antenna at the farm in Riverview and usually get a reasonable picture on channel 10 from the back side of my antenna. I say usually because channel 10 doesn't seem to be the most reliable source for HD (as they showed this past week)...even though they have been at it about the longest of any station in the area.

Yeah, I knew channel 10's transmitter is up in the Holiday area, I never understood why they did that, when just about all the other major locals transmit from out in Riverview.

Years ago Radio Shack used to sell a special antenna kit for the Tampa Bay area. It was 2 separate antennas to be mast mounted outside, a UHF/VHF antenna that you aimed towards the Riverview transmitters, and a separate VHF that you aimed towards the channel 10 transmitter up in Holiday. If you want to pickup a good OTA signal you may want to go check out a local Radio Shack and see if they are still carrying those "Kits". It wouldn't surprise me if they don’t carry it anymore though, I haven’t stepped foot into a RadioShack in about 5+ years, since they dumbed themselves down to being a mini BestBuy/CircuitCity. You can't even buy some of the most basic components for doing simple repairs in that place anymore.

[flmilkfarmer]

I have been having some of the same problems too. Friday night I recorded Las Vegas on channel 8-HD and several times I had the jitters. Most of the shows I watch are on CBS and I have had it happen several times there also.
When I was on Dish and had to get a waiver so that I could get the National CBS in HD I had to send the request to WINK who at the time was not in HD. They granted the waiver and Dish turned me on until last December when the law changed. Comcast the local cable provider also caries WINK and I pick up WINK much better then WTSP with my OTA antenna so I don't understand why both Dish and D* have WTSP for our area. I much prefer WINK over WTSP but my new HR21 does not have the OTA tuner built in. I have my local dealer getting me a 2nd/ receiver and it will be the HR20 so that I have the option of OTA.

[flmilkfarmer]

Tonight NCIS and the Unit were almost unwatchable on my HR20. I was recording both shows and started watching NCIS about 8:20 and caught up to LIVe about 5 minutes into The Unit thinking all the time that it was a DVR issue but even in live it was still dropping the audio and losing the picture every 15 seconds or so. I would get a blue screen for a second or so every so often. Once I caught up I sitched to OTA (WINK) l had had no further trouble.

[mchaney]

Thanks again DirecTV: you've done it again! :mad: Two weeks ago you "lost connection" with my local channels and I missed Survivor. Fast forward two weeks and now you broadcast the entire show with sound only and no video. Not sure whether this is an indication that things are getting better (audio only versus nothing) but still not quite the quality I'm expecting from DirecTV! Enough is enough! PLEASE get this fixed! This is at least the fifth screwup in the last month with obscure error codes, "lost connection" messages, and now audio with no video. I feel like I'm paying to miss shows that I want to see!

Mike

[flmilkfarmer]

Thanks again DirecTV: you've done it again! :mad: Two weeks ago you "lost connection" with my local channels and I missed Survivor. Fast forward two weeks and now you broadcast the entire show with sound only and no video. Not sure whether this is an indication that things are getting better (audio only versus nothing) but still not quite the quality I'm expecting from DirecTV! Enough is enough! PLEASE get this fixed! This is at least the fifth screwup in the last month with obscure error codes, "lost connection" messages, and now audio with no video. I feel like I'm paying to miss shows that I want to see!

Mike


I think the entire evening was like that.