Lost all locals at midnight due to Digital Transition

[nneptune]

WTF?
I was in the middle of watching something that I've been waiting all week to watch.
Right at midnight, the screen went blank.

For nearly the past hour I've been looking at a screen telling me "To be patient. We are fine-tuning some local channels...to deliver the best digital TV experience.

I thought this wasn't supposed to affect us. I'm simmering and very angry.

Yes, I did a reboot, and the same DirecTV message sits on all of my locals. Idiots!

[Jon Ellis]

The station you were watching may be in the process of changing its digital broadcast channel. If that is the case, DirecTV has to tune its digital receiver to the new channel, assuming they are broadcasting. (It can take a little while for engineers to get the transmitters swapped around.)

[adrock13]

don't complain to dtv b/c they won't be able to help. blame the digital transition - they're probably finally finishing soft tests. dtv just distributes the signal.

[Tom Robertson]

As the others have said, stations can go dark, even to multi-channel video providers or OTA during the transition itself. Some stations that are doing "flash cuts" might be out as long as 36 hours while engineers scramble to turn off analog, replace transmitters, and turn on digital on the same frequency.

I'm sorry this happens to anyone, hopefully you can petition your local to rebroadcast the show? Or find it on the internet?

Good luck everyone,
Tom

[inkahauts]

WTF?
I was in the middle of watching something that I've been waiting all week to watch.
Right at midnight, the screen went blank.

For nearly the past hour I've been looking at a screen telling me "To be patient. We are fine-tuning some local channels...to deliver the best digital TV experience.

I thought this wasn't supposed to affect us. I'm simmering and very angry.

Yes, I did a reboot, and the same DirecTV message sits on all of my locals. Idiots!

I have a feeling this is going to happen to a lot of people.. Its not really anyones fault per se.. Its just the situation of changing to digital.. I will be throughly impressed if all ends up well by Saturday at noon or so... The amount of coordination this whole thing is taking is mind boggling if you start reading what all these channels are actually doing...

By the way, you should check and see if the dns feeds are turned on for you right now.. They would be the network channels from 380 thru 399... Its the national feeds for the big 5 networks...

Also, I assume your not using an OTA antenna, ad just pulling things in via sat, right? :D

[videojanitor]

You might want to take a look at this thread that was started a week or so ago:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=159346

I pointed out two potential problems. First, for stations changing frequencies, DirecTV has to have someone at each receive facility to retune the receivers, and since not all stations are making the changes at the same time, they could have to make changes several times during the day.

Second, for receivers that have off-the-air capabilities, the database that holds the channel mapping information needs to be updated throughout the day to keep up with these changes in frequencies, as there is no "scanning" capability -- at least not that I can find with the HR DVRs.

No doubt today is going to be just a little messy ...

[jcwest]

I had this happen to my CBS local station last evening and Directv turned on National feed channel 80 until it gets fixed.

J C

[dodge boy]

I don't understand why they just didn't run both transmitters for the last week simulatneously then all they'd have to do is shut down the analog one and abandon it. There would be no "cut off" in service unless there was a frequency change but for the last week all the ATSC users could have switched to that feed.

[ercjncprdtv]

I don't understand why they just didn't run both transmitters for the last week simulatneously then all they'd have to do is shut down the analog one and abandon it. There would be no "cut off" in service unless there was a frequency change but for the last week all the ATSC users could have switched to that feed.

I think the major issue is the frequency change. In Los Angeles, things went pretty smoothly for their PBS station KCET. When I got up to check a half hour after the midnight frequency switch for them, DirecTV had them up and running perfectly. So it will depend on which engineers at DirecTV are paying attention to all the spot beams.

[MarkN]

I don't understand why they just didn't run both transmitters for the last week simulatneously then all they'd have to do is shut down the analog one and abandon it. There would be no "cut off" in service unless there was a frequency change but for the last week all the ATSC users could have switched to that feed.

the reason for that is most towers can't support the weight of both an analog and ditgital transmitter at the top of the tower at the same time.

[David MacLeod]

as well as some could not afford to run dual feeds at the same time.
there will be glitches, we've all been warned, why the surprise?

[Lee L]

I don't understand why they just didn't run both transmitters for the last week simulatneously then all they'd have to do is shut down the analog one and abandon it. There would be no "cut off" in service unless there was a frequency change but for the last week all the ATSC users could have switched to that feed.

Not sure exactly what you are asking. Almost all stations have been running the analog transmitter as well as the digital one for a long time. What causes the issue the OP is talking about is likely a station that actually changed its digital frequency as part of this. For instance, one station here, WRAL was analog channel 5. They were assigned a temporary allocation of channel 53 for digital and have been transmitting on both 5 and 53 for 9 or 10 years. Now, their permanent digital assignment is channel 48. They have installed new antennas and moved old ones to make it as seamless as possible and allow the old broadcastsd to continue, but there is still a point in time when things change. In their case they are also hampered by restrictions on their power and direction due to other antennas and frequencies in use on the same tower as well as in adjacent markets. This is happening to other stations around the country as well. So, if your device is looking to channel 53, at some point today, it will not see anything there as they change to broadcasting on 48. .

The issue comes in when Directv is picking up channel 53 and sending it to you for your MPEG4 local. They have to find out the time of the change and have someone set the equipment to start getting 48 and send that to you. Also, to deliver the SD locals that they will continue to do, they will have to pick up the HD signal and convert it to SD. Since they started changing the equipment a year or so ago, this has been going on in many places. Of course, that means the DirecTV delivered SD signal will also be affected by the change in frequerncies.

[Msguy]

Late last night i was up watching my local NBC Station from Memphis WMC TV 5 NBC, and they had a blue screen up on the screen blocking part of the broadcast for a few minutes. That must have had something to do with the switchover for my area. I would expect some stations to have a few minor problems and maybe even outages today and all the way up untill the digital transition is complete. Better to just grit your teeth and let them switch and get all of this switchover business over and done with once and for all.

[gquiring]

I have no locals either but my OTA set is working just fine for CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX. Yet D* can't get it going. When you really think about it they have been saying all along you won't have any hassles if you have sat or cable yet here I am with no locals on D*:nono2:

[dduensing]

I have no locals either but my OTA set is working just fine for CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX. Yet D* can't get it going. When you really think about it they have been saying all along you won't have any hassles if you have sat or cable yet here I am with no locals on D*:nono2:

I don't think they said "NO HASSLES", but that you wouldn't need to upgrade your tv or buy a digital converter box.

As for receiving network channels, have you tried the DNS channels in the 380 range? DirecTV allowed me to watch the New York NBC east feed last night until 5 am this morning here in New Orleans.