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OTA Signal clearer then D* Signal - Raleigh locals

1K views 16 replies 13 participants last post by  RCinFLA 
#1 ·
Today was my first time to really test which signal was better going through the HR 20 system. I had noticed, before recent update, that watching sports on the HD Locals (NBC & ABC only ones available in Raleigh, NC area) that anytime the camera was back and viewing from press box, the picture quality was great, but anytime there was a close up or replay from a closer camer, I noticed fuzzy pictures (pixelated viewing problems). When I went to a buddies house to watch on normal OTA, his picture looked great! So, I waited for the OTA update, and have now been able to test the 2 and see the difference. Today during the Colts game, the D* signal of the local HD for Raleigh was probably the worst I have ever seen. Even now druing the Dallas game, it is bad both close up and far out pictures, but when I switch to 17-1, it is a very, very good picture. The white lines around the field are real fuzzy. It is just a horrible picture. The local ABC is the same way during games. When I switch to local OTA the picture clears up a lot.

When I watch some of the other HD channels that D* provides, I do get some pixelated picture during games on HD Net or 95 HD and ESPN HD and ESPN 2 HD but not nearly as bad as the locals hds. Hockey and B-ball and Football look great on HD Net and 95HD. I can live with this, but not the locals. For the most part, at least not as noticable, movies and shows look fine on all of these stations, even locas, however, there are ocasional break up on ABC and NBC locas HDs, like when watching LOST or HEROES, sometimes green pixels come through but still can hear audio. And currently watching Desparate Housewives, I am getting ocasional green pixels.

This is the same when watching live or recorded games.

The 1st question is, are there any people in the Raleigh area that have noticed this same thing. This would mean this is a D* problem.

My thinking though that maybe it is on my end with my dish not receiving correct signal strength.
I have reset my system and even let it rest for an hour, and it still does the same thing.

Here is what my signal strengths read, and I think they should be higher then this, but I do not know what the norm should be.

When I run System Test
Tuner 1 - Aquired at 73%
Tuner 2 - Aquired at 73%
Off Air1 - 83%
Off Air2 - 84%

The 73% seems low to me, but why are Tuner 1 and 2 so low? When I hooked up the 2nd tuner, I ran a brand new, RG6 cable from Satellite to tuner 2. Yes, I have them hooked through the cable adapter provided by D*
Here are my signal strengths from the setup menu. Some seem kind of low, but I am not sure what the normal is. I know that through my OTA that any signal below 70% then HD contecnt does not come through very good, sometimes not at all with lots of break ups, but when I have a signal well above 70-80% then it comes through in spectacular view.

Sat 101 degree
32 total sats aat 101
Tuner 1 and 2 similar numbers

1-8 87 89 88 70 85 81 88 76
9-16 83 91 88 55 86 83 88 77
17-24 86 54 89 72 84 80 88 83
25-32 85 0 87 96 87 85 88 86


Sat 110
3 at 110

1-8 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 73
9-16 N/A 71 N/A 77 "


Sat 119
11 @ 119

1-8 N/A...
9-16 N/A...
17-23 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 96 98 96
25-32 0 98 98 97 0 97 100 97


Sat 99 (b)
6 @ 99 (b)

1-8 0 53 0 57 0 0 N/A....
N/A 9-32


Sat 103 (a)
6 @ 103 (a)

1-8 0 39 19 0 21 26 N/A N/A
N/A 9-32
 
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#2 ·
Yes, I also noticed that both games were terribly pixellated. The quality was probably the worst I have seen yet in HD. It was so bad that I switched over to my TV's tuner since the HR20's never seems to work right.
 
#5 ·
I watched the Colts game on the OTA HD and it looked great.
My signal strength is in the mid 90s for the "big 4" in the Raleigh area (5-1, 11-1, 17-1, 50-1).

I will be getting an AU9 MPEG-4 dish installed next week so I can't test the HD locals at this time.

However, I do notice a significant amount of pixelation/break-up with the WRAL HD CBS (5-1) via OTA. Even more so than the other 4 networks. The WRAL-HD signal strength is close to 100% and I'm wondering if I'm over saturating the signal with the pre-amp on my CM4228 antenna (attic mount).

Do you notice any problems with the WRAL-HD (CBS) in Raleigh?
 
#7 ·
FIO:

OTA will always be clearest pic because compression algorithms used to transmit signal by D* & (local cable providers as well and even more so!) do not transmit full bandwith of original signal. This is an engineering compromise to push the "stuff through the pipe". Pixalation is almost always a signal strength problem at the receive end though.
 
#10 ·
texasbrit said:
mtalhelm - your locals are supposedly on 103 but your signal strengths are terribly low, you should have at least one transponder in the 80s or 90s on 103. It looks to me like your dish is not aligned properly. Check your 103 transponders again to make sure.
Would the lack of signal strength be due to poor cables or do I need to realign dish - does the dish need realignment often? It hasn't moved - at least not that I know of.
 
#13 ·
I live in the SF Bay Area I had the same problem with both games last night, I ended up watching the games using the HR20's OTA receiver. Much better PQ. I have my dish peaked using my Birdog. I usually only have PQ issues while watching Live events over D*. Regular primetime shows I never have any problem with.
 
#14 ·
mtalhelm said:
Would the lack of signal strength be due to poor cables or do I need to realign dish - does the dish need realignment often? It hasn't moved - at least not that I know of.
It is almost certainly a dish alignment problem. Is the dish on the roof, did the installer use the monopoles (two stabiliser poles) attached to the dish mast??
 
#16 ·
wolfgpd said:
Is everyone getting strong signals from the major ones through the box?? When I ran it directly to my tv I had great reception from all of them but through the box not so much. Sometimes its tellin me it can't even find the signal.
i find the tuner in my tv hold pic just as well as hr20. when hr20 is showing 771 tv is also seeing issues with OTA. This is frist time I saw issues with raleigh HD signal but must admit I mstly watch/record the national nbc hd or the OTA
 
#17 ·
It is not likely that signal strength is degrading the picture as described. Signal strength will cause freeze jumps and out of sync blocks of pixels. Not general loss of resolution.

I have a tower with elaborate outdoor antenna system. I get twenty five HD OTA channels. I can get the HD network feeds from two or three different local channels so have a good comparison basis for the D* local HD transmissions.

I can say very definatively the OTA MPEG2 ATSC transmissions are better.

I have stated before, beside D* trying to crimp the bandwidth with high MPEG4 compression, I think a big reason is the conversion of the locals' MPEG2 compression to D* MPEG4 compression.

This might get better over time as better algorythms are put in place to make the conversion between the two compression schemes.
 
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