[Slip Jigs]

NBC Local shows here tonight very crappy - jumped in and out of HD, sound and signal cutting in and out contiinuously. Had to watch mostly on SD channels which were fine.

Been raining here all day, but very light this evening. Weather or the feed?

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Probably alignment issues.

The 5LNB is very particular

 

[Tom Robertson]

They are in that the MPEG4 channels (all the HD locals, except the original east and west coast locals) are sent via a different frequency than everything else. (KA frequencies, FYI). This frequency range is VERY susceptible to rain intereference. That is a bit part of why the dish got bigger.

And that is why the dish has a very fine grain adjustment base in comparison to the older bases.

Assuming for the moment that you are not too close to the edge of the spotbeam, for your locals, if your dish was correctly aligned by the installer, then you should be able to handle even a fairly heavy rain or snow to the south.

The problem seems to be very few installers want to take the time to correctly follow the installation and alignment technique that D* prescribes. Mine did not, for instance, but I pushed him to do almost the same thing and I seem to be ok so far.

From the description you give, I'd call D* to have the dish correctly aligned.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Slip Jigs]

I can see how alignment would affect the signal in general, but does that account for the portions of the programs that were not in HD?

 

[clay_w]

Interesting thing is that I am in Michigan also and was watching NBC on my HR10 via OTA and it was cutting out and breaking up also.

My OTA hardly ever breaks up under any kind of conditions and tonights weather wasn't bad at all so I don't know what was going on.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

I can see how alignment would affect the signal in general, but does that account for the portions of the programs that were not in HD?

Sorry... missed that part in your OP.

If you saw it go in and out of "HD mode"... that is all on the network side of things.

Also remember... with the bad weather going through the midwest; Very few affiliates have HD overlay equipment.
They have to drop the HD signal back down to SD, so they can put crawls and other information on the screen.

 

[Tom Robertson]

Depends on what you are seeing I guess. Audio drops and macroblocking can easily be created by a bad alignment. If you are truly dropping out of HD into an SD signal, then that would be at the station or possibly (unlikely these days) at the network.

You might take a peek at the AVSforum HD thread for your locals. They often have tons of good information.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Slip Jigs]

Thanks all - it could be a combination of both issues - network, and alignment. This is the first real rain we've had since I got hooked up, even tho it's not that bad - I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[houskamp]

Channel 8 (nbc) in GR has some of the worst reception... I don't know how D gets it (ant or direct conection).. I spent the most time on my ant to get that channel steady.. Also they have some real clowns running their equipment.. News brodcasts are always saturated....

 

[Slip Jigs]

NBC has been excellent here in Detroit for the most part.

Oh, and no mention at AVS - the Detroit thread buried wayyy down! I posed the question tho..

 

[B.A.T.S]

My NBC HD picture & audio was also cutting in & out so switched to SD was a little better but still had same problems. Wasn't able to record any shows because too much interference & there was hardly any rain. Never had any problems until yesterday so I hope it was just a bad feed. I sure hope it's not a dish alignment issue w/ the very limited amount of rain bet. 8-9pm here in Detroit or else I forsee many many many many many.....local HD problems.

 

[Clint Lamor]

I had problems with NBC the other night here in Tampa just from OTA no HR20 at all involved. I have seen more issues with them then any other channel I watch.

 

[mridan]

Sorry... missed that part in your OP.

If you saw it go in and out of "HD mode"... that is all on the network side of things.

Also remember... with the bad weather going through the midwest; Very few affiliates have HD overlay equipment.
They have to drop the HD signal back down to SD, so they can put crawls and other information on the screen.

Earl I live in Villa Park everything great except sometimes only channel 2HD gets slighty pixelated(if thats how to describe when you get signal loss macro blocking?) rain or snow all other local HD channels not affected,AT9 dish alignment problem? all sd channels fine just that one channel