DTV Tuner problems & DTV changeover

[Mark Casey]

Many of the DTV sets and converter boxes have decoding problems.

My Sharp DTV (about 5 yrs-old, so, probably 1st or 2nd generation DTV tuner) 
will not decode WFSB-3-4, but will decode the first 3 just fine.

There are channel number decoding issues also. One of my TV's decodes CH 61 
as its' RF channel--CH31. The other TV's decode it as CH 61. For more than a 
year one of my TV's was decoding it it 2 places, 31 and 61.

And, I've seen and heard of many other decoding problems from other friends 
and some of my other converter boxes.



Right now  DTV CH20 (-1 & -2), Waterbury, CT is gone from RF CH12. It 
appears during the rescan (as CH 20) but not in the rescanned lineup.

My guess is that it will be several days, if not more, for all the DTV 
stations that must make changes to get up to full, or near to full, power.

Mark Casey K1MAP
near Springfield


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
To: "Boston Radio Interest" <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 7:41 AM
Subject: WHDH-DT moves from RF-42 to 7


The end of analog on 7 was very unceremonious; the carriers were cut
for the last time right in the middle of a Toyota commercial. I assume
that the balance of the commercial aired in DTV, also on Channel 7.

For me, the good news is that--on both my old analog TV/converter box
and my DTV receiver--I am having no trouble, so far, with picture or
sound quality or reliability of reception of the only major Boston
station that is broadcasting DTV on VHF. Moreover, the rescanning
process on the DTV converter box appeared to go without a hitch. Not
so with my year-old Panasonic LCD DTV receiver, however. The problem
is more annoying than serious; it does not affect the picture, sound,
or apparent reliability of reception, but it's annoying and I can't
figure out how to correct it. Besides affecting 7-1 and 7-2, the
problem also appears on 66-1 (there is no 66-2).

When I use the remote's up/down arrow keys to select channels, I now
have two 7-1s, two 7-2s, and two 66-1s. In all three cases, if I use
the arrow keys to tune to these channels and approach them from a
lower-numbered channel, the program appears on the first instance of
the channel that I encounter; the second instance simply elicits the
no-signal message. Entering the channel/subchannel designation from
the remote's numeric keypad, I can get the appropriate program. I
tried editing the list of stations by turning "off" the second
instance of each of these channels that appeared in the list of
signals the receiver displayed after the channel scan, but that simply
made it impossible to select those channels via the up/down arrows.
Fortunately, the programs remained accessible from the remote's
numeric keypad. Anyhow, it seems that if I want to be able to reach
7-1, 7-2, or 66-1 via the up/down arrows, I must have two instances of
each channel/subchannel combination. Eliminating the second instance
eliminates both instances. I haven't tried eliminating the first
instance because I fear that that would also make it impossible to
reach those channels from the keypad. Also, on repeated rescans, I've
observed that the receiver "remembers" on/off designations from
previous scans, whereas I thought that rescanning would clear them.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367