Dish 921 OTA Capability

[mbart0656]

Hi, I'm new here and it lookd like there is a lot of great information. Maybe someday I can contribute rather ask a lot of questions. I have had Dish since 1998 or so. I got HD about 1-1/2 years ago with a Mitsubishi WS-55908 and the Dish 6000 (8VSB and recently 8PSK). I was starting to think that I should upgrade to the new Mits Promise Module or the Dish 921. The PVR part (at least right now since I had never gotten hooked on a PVR) is not that important. My main reason for upgrading is that my OTA performance is so-so. I have good signal level but the picture breaks up on a couple of channels all the time (all HD transmitters in Phoenix are on the same mountain). I was thinking this is attributed to multi-path and since the 6000 only has a 1st or 1.5 generation 8VSB chipset, the multi-path capability is low. Does anyone know if the 921 will have a 3rd generation chipset. They reportedly have a better multi-path performance. Thanks for your help!

[Mike123abc]

I have read that using a signal attenuator may help with the 6000 and HDTV. Knocking down the signal some helps by weakening the strong ghosts to the point that the multi-path circuitry can figure it out.

Another way to check to see if it is multipath is to look at the analog stations. If they are all on the same mountain antenna farm and if you are getting strong ghosts on the matching analog station you know your problem probably is with multi-path. If you are getting a good analog picture it could be that your station is not operating its digital signal at full power.

[mbart0656]

MIke, thanks for your response. I have looked at the analog channel near the DT channel thats a problem (33 vs. 36DT) and it's not a crystal clear picture but it bors not have any ghosting. I thoght about attenuators but a couple of my other channels are border line (low 70's) so I was afraid of losing lock plus the DT channel at 29 is around 98 power level and there are no issues. It seems that when this channel just floats around between 68 and 84 and when it goes below 80, it loses parts of the picture and has audio dropouts. I'm only 15 miles from the transmitters but there are a few houses across the street that are 2 story. My antenna is about 12 feet off the ground but I can't go higher due to the home owners association. Does anyone know of any good amplified OTA antennas that look like a dish. My HOA doesn't seem to care about dishes but they already gave me a notice about my normal analog antenna.

[Big D]

First, your home owners association can not legally stop you from putting up an antenna, there are many posts on that subject on various forums. They can, however, make life miserable for you if you go against them. In the end, you win, but was it worth it?

Next, placing an attenuator in line with your coax lead-in will not affect your signal strength of a good digital station that much, it will effect the multi-path though. Buy a RadioShed variable attenuator for ~$8.00 and give it a try, it helped by 6000/8VSB reception, I lost my remaining dropouts. One other trick I used was putting in a FM block. If you are using a VHF/UHF type antenna, you will be getting a lot of FM energy at your 8VSB and it does not like that. Again, I bought a cheap RS FM trap and that made a great deal of difference. My signal strength did not change any after placing these to devices in line with my coax, I still get all channels, but now, no more dropouts.

Finally, the MITs PM is not going to be any different than the 8VSB you have, it fact I feel it is worst. I have both, and I leave my OTA on the 6000/VSB. One problem that the MITs has is an annoying audio drop out that drives me crazy.

Now for the earlier question you asked about if the 921 will have 3rd gen chips, I would like to know the answer to that as well. Someone else speculated that it may, but was not sure as they are somewhat new on the market and the 921 has been in development for what seems forever, so maybe it still has 2nd gen chips. Does anyone know for sure?

[mbart0656]

Big D, thanks for the advice. I'll try the attenuators and FM trap. My antenna is a UHF Yagi but I don't know the rolloff at VHF/FM. It's a Godar Electronics Yagi. It looks like a batwing. Has anyone tried the channelmaster stealth antenna? The spec sheet says it is VHF/UHF and I'd like to add my VHF channels back into my TV rather than the stuff coming down from Dish.

[Big D]

UHF Yagi's typically do not have much FM energy, but give the trap a try, it is a cheap device to buy. If it does nothing for you, you will have it available in your junk box of goodies.

Try doing a search for antenna advice in various forums, there is a ton of info available.

[scooper]

The actual link is http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html .

And the actual max height you are covered to is 12 feet above your roofline. Otherwise, the HOA can pound sand about your antenna.

[Mike123abc]

Check out http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12458 where you see some of the OTA problems I had. I had to attenuate some channels and amplify others. It might give you some ideas. I spent about $40 on the attenuators, band splitters and amplifer.

[mbart0656]

Wow Mike, you went to a lot of trouble but I'm sure it was worth it in the end. I thought about a lot of what you have done but I keep telling myself not to over engineer it. :lol: I think I'll try some of the antenuators and FM traps. I have a pure UHF antenna so I don't think I am getting much in the VHF range but you never know. Maybe a good bandpass filter to pass just the UHF band and reject everything else might help the tuner. Thanks for your suggestions.

[Mike123abc]

My problem was that channel 6 a 100kwatt station is about 3 miles by air from my house in direct line of a 40kwatt station 45 miles away. So, I had to really cut down the channel 6 without cutting down the others. I thought about a single channel antenna but it was $200, I wanted a less expensive solution. The band splitters were $7.36 each and the attenuators were $1.95 each. The amp was the most expensive part. I have 2 digital stations and 8 analog atm... in a couple months should have 4 digital.