my french analog cbc is very clear along with a channel, ctv and (m channel is weak)...ill post my digital results when i get the ota box...
right now the antenna is just on top of the tv pointed at seymour (going through 1 wall and one window)...

whats the lowest percent to make the digital channel 'watchable' ? 60%?

btw i am near hastings and nanaimo in the main floor of a older house with a fairly clear view of seymour

whats the lowest percent to make the digital channel 'watchable' ? 60%?The analogue signals are subject to multipath distortion and so the garble you might see on the screen is because of that. Digital OTA also suffers from multipath, but it is an all or nothing proposition - either the tuner can make sense of the signal and therefore presents it crystal clear, or else it does not present it at all even if the signal strength seem high. Regarding percentages or signal strength values, unless you are using professionally calibrated gear it is not really meaningful to compare such numbers with others since one brand of HDTV might use a different scale than another. If you find someone who has the same type of tuner as you then you can compare numbers.

ok i finally got my STB and set it all up. its the hughes e8 and silver sensor combo and im in east van near hastings and nanaimo. i have a fairly clear line of sign to seymour.

i get 100% cbc hd and ~79 for ctv hd. there are some dropouts with ctv but it is pretty watchable (although have not seen much hd material to test with ctv yet). the picture is very good compared to some of the compressed shaw hd signals although cbc hd and ctv hd are not compressed with shaw.

im wondering why are there duplicates with the OTA HD channels? and is there any date for global hd to launch in gvr?

although cbc hd and ctv hd are not compressed with shaw.

Are you sure? 'cause I've been to London Drugs, and Futureshop, and seen Shaw HD there, and their CBC-HD and CTV-HD offerings don't have anything on OTA. It's like watching HD with beer goggles, it's just not as sharp.

After emailed someone at KOMO, I learned of how Shaw receives their KOMO-DT signal. They pick it up out of the air on Saltspring Island. I guess Shaw knows how to best get a feed (other than using fiber), but they don't want their customers to know about OTA. How ironic:)

I am in a ground floor condo on the west side of Vancouver with no line of site to Seymour. After several months of poor reception (lots of dropouts on CBC-HD and no signal on CTV-HD) I elevated my Silver Sensor about six inches and got decent reception again (CBC-HD is perfect and CTV-HD has occasional dropouts but is more watchable than ever). This is great but I am wondering what has changed that necessitated repositioning of my antenna to restore my reception quality. Could this be the result of high-rise construction in downtown Vancouver that has caused changes in the reflections or multi-path signals? If so, I suppose that I'll probably need to make more adjustments in the future so I'm glad my antenna isn't permanently mounted.

Wow, that is really fine-grained interference you've been having, and it is a good example of some of the problems with indoor antennas if you live near the ground floor. You might need to take your antenna for a walk around your place again for a new sweet spot! :)

I live in Vancouver near, Victoria & Kingsway.

I have a Terk/Winegard HDTVs/Squareshooter directional antenna pointed at Mt. Seymour from my Rooftop.

I receive the following channels crystal clear in NTSC:

2 CBC
17 A Channel
26 CBC French
32 CTV
44 M Channel

I receive a few others such as Global and City, but to me there un-watchable to fuzzy, and I've given up trying to tune them. I did get Global clear when I turned the antenna directly to Global in Burnaby, but lost all other channels. Global does transmit from Mt. Seymoour as well, but can't get clear picture.

Its a sacrifice I'm willing to make, unless anyone has any other ideas?


On my ATSC Tuner I receive in Digital HD:

2 CBC HD at a signal strength best I can is 80.
32 CITV (CTV HD) at a signal strength of 74.

To date I believe that's all that is offered in digital.

Cheers,

Roger

I just got an Air2PC card and a directional amplified antenna from ebay (http://cgi.********/Air2PC-ATSC-Digital-HDTV-Tuner-PCI-Card-w-software_W0QQitemZ230039715999QQihZ013QQcategoryZ3761QQssPag eNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Near cambie and 16th facing toward Seymour

With amplifier enabled:
CBUT-DT 90-100%
CIVT-DT 54-60%
without:
CBUT-DT 70%
CIVT-DT no signal

I just had a look at that antenna on the ebay listing, zivan56, and it appears to be a Zenith Silver Sensor clone judging from its general shape and the performance you are getting. When you turn on the amplifier, is CIVT-DT steady and clean?

Here's a photo of the included antenna:

http://www.bbti.us/picts/antenna.jpg

stampeder, yes, its coming in quite clear when they actually have HD content. I was just enjoying some real HD content a few hours ago on it (although the signal is hovering around 56%). CBUT-DT is way better in terms of quality though. None of them have any stuttering problems or anything related to missed frames (at least from what I can see)
Here are some samples: link (http://www.iwdstudio.com/slike/hdtv/). Not sure if CTV news is in HD, but its looks quite horrible compared to other shows.

CIVT-DT's news is definitely not in HD. It is digital, but in SD. No Vancouver stations are doing News in HD yet.

Great photos of CBC's "Intelligence", a terrific show.

I've heard from CBC that the National will likely start in HD in January 2007. No word when CTV NEWS will start in HD, but I'm sure once CBC does, CTV won't be far behind, first starting with national newscast, then going local.

Oddly enough, Citytv has gone local first, starting with Toronto. Maybe now that CTV owns CHUM (and Citytv), CTV will take on a Citytv HD style to local HD proliferation?

**please see my post regarding my conversation with a CTV tekkie at the PNE regarding HD newscast out of CIVT.**

And as for Global, it looks like they'll be left in SD for as long as TVs have NTSC tuners, along with no viewers because we'll all be watching news in HD on other channels. Get on the bus Global!!!

Well.....
After complaining about low CTV power for the better part of the year, I decided to give it another try.

Using a Silver Sensor indoors with a Fusion 5 PC card I finally found a few sweet spots in my room. After about one hour, I found a position where I get both CTV and CBC (only about 1 foot over and 5 inches higher than the original position).

I found a few spots where I could get a hint of signal on KBCB D19, but I did not try to hard to get a lock. Not a hint of KVOS D35 ever.

As long as I don't bump by antenna, I am content until KVOS goes to full power.

Hello,

I've been lurking for the past week or so ever since I bought my Panasonic plasma with the ASTC tuner, trying to read up on the OTA forums. At first I was looking to get an indoor antenna like the Silver Sensor, but after reading all the FAQs and comments in the postings, I have decided to go with an outdoor antenna.

Problem is, my wife doesn't want a large antenna like the CM 4228. I'm looking to get the CM 4221 or the CM 3010 Stealth which is listed on stampeder's Decision Chart. They don't look too intrusive on my roofline. I have a few questions:

1) What kind of channels do I expect to pick up? I think my antenna will be too small to pick up any US stations.

2) I plan a mast mount on the roof. For these two antennas, are the mast mounts standard 1-1/4" that I can pick up at Home Depot or do you have to buy the masts made especially for these antennas?

3) Do I aim the antenna at Mt. Seymour?

4) Is there a reason to pick the the 3010 to also get VHF channels instead of the 4221 when I am purely interested in HD?

Sorry if these questions are obvious, but I'm a newbie when it comes to OTA....

Thanks.

1.) expect to get CBC HD, and hope to get CTV HD (you might need line of sight because the effective radiated power output of CTV's tower is so low). But with an outdoor antenna on a mast, with your location in town, I don't think you'll have a problem picking up CTV.

2.) No comment, I'm not the person to ask about outdoor antennas as I have an indoor antenna myself.

3.) Yes, Mt. Seymour

4.) Same as 2.)

2) I plan a mast mount on the roof. For these two antennas, are the mast mounts standard 1-1/4" that I can pick up at Home Depot or do you have to buy the masts made especially for these antennas?Check out The Source thread in the Equipment Forum for reasonably priced tripod mounts and masts, or you could PM 4DTV HD to see what he's got. The Home Depot idea is okay except that the pipe they carry is pretty heavy galvanized steel, while an antenna mast that is less than 10 feet only needs to be extruded tubing for most cases of a single UHF antenna.

First post here :)

I got my Viewsonic N3752 and tried it out with RCA indoor antenna from XSCargo. I live in Downtown hi-rise, 23rd floor and I point the RCA antenna to no particular direction. I got both CBUT-HD (2.1) and CTV HD (32.1). I can also get the digital non-hd channel on 24.1 but only when I'm holding the antenna or standing in very close proximity. I never thought that I can be an effective antenna myself ;)

My question is that since my apartment is facing east / north east, will it be possible for me to get an outdoor antenna and get signals from stateside? I won't be able to point it south and I'm still not sure how the condo strata will treat the ugliness that is the outdoor antenna.

Hi asun, with no view to the south you won't have luck with SeaTac stations. Your RCA antenna is not a great indoor antenna, but I think almost any indoor antenna in a high-rise facing north-east would pick up the Mt. Seymour stations well. ;) If you find that your reception is breaking up or otherwise a problem, pick up a ZSS clone from London Drugs and it will serve you well.

Hi Everyone - I just bought the 'ZSS clone' from London Drugs (@ a hefty 70~ dollars) Here is the view from my condo window (Located at Broadway/Spruce). My unit faces west, so I don't really have a clear view of mt seymour

Cut this image in half (the west half) and that is my view:

http://skylinecondos.ca/pana_view/DayNorth.jpg

After fiddling with the antenna, and buliding a tower of boxes to mount it higher, I am now pointing it towards granville island.. I have about 12 stations that are there and I can see the picture, but it looks really bad. I'm getting two digital stations CBC and World vision (not HD), CBC HD is coming in very well, (i'm kinda impressed) I'm sitting at a signal of 53 on CBC HD (my tv is a Sharp Acquos 42" 1080p). The highest I could manage (while holding and pointing the antenna manually) was a signal of 63..

Any tips/Ideas/questions?? Am I getting the most out of my condo location (7th Floor)? It's too bad I can't see seymour - do I have a chance of getting anything more than CBC?

Update, - So If i point it directly north I get a signal of 51-52... If I point it Directly west - Right at a building, I get a signal of 55-57. Weird.. I think it might be reflecting the cypress signal off the building next to mine.