[shadco]

I live in arnold md. Ever since going with Direct TV i've been forced to use the Baltimore Locals and cannot get the Washington DC Locals. This is particularly frustrating since the baltimore locals do a fair amount of preempting National programming and almost always squash the Redskins when they are on the national feed. This was somewhat mitigated when they got a waiver for the CBS national feed but now they say they can no longer provide it.

Both Comcast and Verizon Fios deliver both feeds (DC, and Balt) to their subscribers.

I've been paying to get the comcast basic service to cover DC locals off of cable. Comcast has now made that HD only feeds and I don't have a cable card in my set.

I'm thinking maybe I should switch to Fios.

Why would it be legal for Comcast, and Verizon to provide both feeds while Direct TV can only provide 1.

Does anyone know of a way to get Direct TV to provide both? I prefer their service but if the can't deliver the programming I want due to legal restrictions it makes them much less attractive.

 

[jclewter79]

Sat. provider are treated differently by law, it is not fair but, it is what it is. You need to set up an OTA antenna for your out of market locals it posssible. Directv can for proivide signifigantly viewed locals to many markets as I understand it, they just don't. Maybe some else more knowledgble about this could chime in.

 

[harsh]

"Significantly Viewed" is the phrase you're looking for. DIRECTV hasn't gone there yet for the most part.

Is OTA an option?

 

[tcusta00]

jclewter is correct - significantly viewed locals are available, by law, to certain markets (yours and mine included for Balt/DC) but they don't. I don't know why - I'm sure we fall in the spotbeam for both.

Your option with DirecTV is to do the DC market OTA (over the air) which works out great with DirecTV because you actually end up with more channels than you would have gotten with cable or FIOS. For instance, we get all the WETA stations (~30) and the picture quality is superb.

If you're going the HD DVR route either the HR20 or HR21+AM21 will get you OTA and it integrates into the guide seamlessly. I believe in Arnold you should be fine to get OTA from DC - even better positioned than me - I'm up in Carroll County.

 

[curt8403]

I live in arnold md. Ever since going with Direct TV i've been forced to use the Baltimore Locals and cannot get the Washington DC Locals. This is particularly frustrating since the baltimore locals do a fair amount of preempting National programming and almost always squash the Redskins when they are on the national feed. This was somewhat mitigated when they got a waiver for the CBS national feed but now they say they can no longer provide it.

Both Comcast and Verizon Fios deliver both feeds (DC, and Balt) to their subscribers.

I've been paying to get the comcast basic service to cover DC locals off of cable. Comcast has now made that HD only feeds and I don't have a cable card in my set.

I'm thinking maybe I should switch to Fios.

Why would it be legal for Comcast, and Verizon to provide both feeds while Direct TV can only provide 1.

Does anyone know of a way to get Direct TV to provide both? I prefer their service but if the can't deliver the programming I want due to legal restrictions it makes them much less attractive.

Nielsen rating service determines who your local channels are by zipcode. Cable and Verizon operate under different rules. Also. Directv has not yet implimented Significately viewed channels yet.

 

[shadco]

jclewter is correct - significantly viewed locals are available, by law, to certain markets (yours and mine included for Balt/DC) but they don't. I don't know why - I'm sure we fall in the spotbeam for both.

Your option with DirecTV is to do the DC market OTA (over the air) which works out great with DirecTV because you actually end up with more channels than you would have gotten with cable or FIOS. For instance, we get all the WETA stations (~30) and the picture quality is superb.

If you're going the HD DVR route either the HR20 or HR21+AM21 will get you OTA and it integrates into the guide seamlessly. I believe in Arnold you should be fine to get OTA from DC - even better positioned than me - I'm up in Carroll County.

I've got an HR20-100 and use OTA for the Balt stations since line of sight is pretty good and only 13 miles. Geography suggests that I would have to go to extraordinary antenna setup to get the dc locals. I might just climb up on the roof and give the old batwing a try though.

Thanks

 

[jclewter79]

I've got an HR20-100 and use OTA for the Balt stations since line of sight is pretty good and only 13 miles. Geography suggests that I would have to go to extraordinary antenna setup to get the dc locals. I might just climb up on the roof and give the old batwing a try though.

Thanks

I have no idea what kind of blockage you have between you and DC but, my out of market locals are 65 miles away and, i was able to put up an antenna, tripod and preamp for under $200 dollars. So, maybe you can get out pretty cheap if you look around for a deal.

 

[raoul5788]

Nielsen rating service determines who your local channels are by zipcode. Cable and Verizon operate under different rules. Also. Directv has not yet implimented Significately viewed channels yet.

Not true. I get sv channels here in CT from NY. Other parts of CT get them from RI or Boston. I know it is rare, but some of us do get sv channels.

 

[raoul5788]

I live in arnold md. Ever since going with Direct TV i've been forced to use the Baltimore Locals and cannot get the Washington DC Locals. This is particularly frustrating since the baltimore locals do a fair amount of preempting National programming and almost always squash the Redskins when they are on the national feed. This was somewhat mitigated when they got a waiver for the CBS national feed but now they say they can no longer provide it.

Both Comcast and Verizon Fios deliver both feeds (DC, and Balt) to their subscribers.

I've been paying to get the comcast basic service to cover DC locals off of cable. Comcast has now made that HD only feeds and I don't have a cable card in my set.

I'm thinking maybe I should switch to Fios.

Why would it be legal for Comcast, and Verizon to provide both feeds while Direct TV can only provide 1.

Does anyone know of a way to get Direct TV to provide both? I prefer their service but if the can't deliver the programming I want due to legal restrictions it makes them much less attractive.

Just curious, do you know John Poulos, the Studebaker guy?

 

[tcusta00]

I've got an HR20-100 and use OTA for the Balt stations since line of sight is pretty good and only 13 miles. Geography suggests that I would have to go to extraordinary antenna setup to get the dc locals. I might just climb up on the roof and give the old batwing a try though.

Thanks

Have you tried http://antennaweb.org/ to see what they say you'd need?

 

[curt8403]

Have you tried http://antennaweb.org/ to see what they say you'd need?

+1

 

[miketorse]

Not true. I get sv channels here in CT from NY. Other parts of CT get them from RI or Boston. I know it is rare, but some of us do get sv channels.

Yes, I also know of some zip codes in the Raleigh and Durham NC area (27278 specifically) that get some Greensboro neighboring locals as well.

 

[shadco]

+1

Indications are a blue range for the channels I want. I have std batwing type installed by dtv and if I recall it's a medium (green range ) antenna

 

[AntAltMike]

TV Fool says the middle of zip 21012 is about 30 miles from the Washington, DC transmitters and that you would have line of site reception from the 30 foot above ground level antenna height I entered. I've only done one residential antenna installation in that region and got minimally acceptable reception in an attic using a Channel Master 4-bay bowtie, but I was able to peak it with a spectrum analyzer, which you will not have.

Unless there is some kind of artificial constraint, you would be well advised to use a good sized UHF antenna for now, but of course WJLA and WUSA will be moving from 39 and 34 to 7 and 9 respectively.

 

[Spacefox1138]

I have a slightly different situation that I can begin to understand. I live in Athens Ohio and it's been almost two years since Nielson moved Athens County into the Columbus OH DMA. However, DTV and Dish both deliver only the Charleston/Huntington WV channels (and only in SD no less). I do have a good OTA antenna and am capable of pulling in the Columbus stations about 85% of the time. That's about 85 miles and anytime we get a little atmospheric action, the signal dropouts make the picture unwatchable. I can always switch to analog and watch a slightly snowy picture, but come February that won't be an option.

I've heard varying reasons/rumors why Athens county doesn't follow the "local reception" norm. One has Senator Byrd of WV arm twisting the FCC because some of his WV broadcasters were upset when Athens was removed from the Charleston/Huntington DMA. I've also heard that our only local station WOUB, a PBS affiliate at Ohio University, didn't want to give up DTV access to it's established fund raising area in the WV DMA. They rent a fiberoptic link to Huntington WV to up link their signal to the satellite.

Anybody heard of anything like this? I get the Columbus Dispatch delivered to my house every day, and would have to drive 35 miles to buy a West Virginia newspaper, there just isn't any way that this can be right. After February, I may lose access to Ohio TV news outlets when the weather isn't perfect. No offense to our friends in "Wild and Wonderful" but their local news just isn't relevant up here.

 

[Redlinetire]

Nielsen rating service determines who your local channels are by zipcode. Cable and Verizon operate under different rules. Also. Directv has not yet implimented Significately viewed channels yet.

FYI - According to Nielsen, that is incorrect. They had business reasons for creating the DMA and then Congress and the Satellite companies co-opted it for their own purpose, which in the end casts Nielsen as the bad guy.

Here's a link or just Google "Local Into Local" and you'll see the Nielsen link that explains their position on it:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/port...toid=2d8677edbfbb9010VgnVCM100000ac0a260aRCRD