lindmar, presuming your antenna is directional, aim it NW for Detroit stations, W for Toledo or S for Cleveland.

Also, if you can put the antenna up high that would help.

Where are you in Kingsville? What's the elevation like? I seem to recall there being a low area just to the west on old Highway 18.

Yeah I am actually trying an indoor antenna. My buddy down the street, its his antenna.. he uses it and picks up a handful of crystal clear HD.

bring it here, picking up nothing...

Im confused.. is is the TV?

Your FTA receiver has a poor quality tuner which is failing to separate out & reject the signals reflected off buildings in downtown Detroit. It therefore gives you zilch on ch 59.The line of site from Canton to the broadcasting towers in Southfield is nowhere near downtown Detroit and is less than 20 miles. Something is wrong with the set up or hardware. A preamp should not be needed with an outdoor antenna for that area. I would check to see if the antenna is oriented correctly, cables properly terminated, etc.Fox DT is ch 59WJBK-DT is 58.

lindmar, also see posts #169 through 172 in this thread. Maybe that's your friend who posted here awhile back? :) As you can see from Leamington posts too, a good outdoor antenna mounted up high will bring in lots of OTA digital TV channels.

My wife's family is from Leamington and we visit there often (I'm originally from Windsor). Lots of towers and lots of antennas in the air all over town so I think lindmar is going to need some height in order to get reliable OTA.

Success!

I made one of those DIY Antennas from a video I saw on YouTube and picked up a Crystal Clear Toledo ABC Channel 13...

I am going to get a small but real outdoor antenna and give that a shot....

There are a few other channels scanning in but they arent coming in.. TOmorrow I'll try moving around the DIY Antenna..

Just wanted to post what I'm picking up with my DIY from Kingsville

2-1 Fox HD
13-1 WTVG ABC
13-2 WTVG+
13-3 - WTVG
20.1 WYMD
20-2 WCSN TV World Championship Sports Network
56-1 WTVS Detroit Public TV HD
56-2 PBS Detroit
56-3 PBS Detroit

Still no luck getting NBC or a lock on Fox...

Well first off I would like to say Howdy to all and a big thanks in advance. I would like to say the info on this site is amazing and a little overwhelming, I would like some info specific to my needs so here we go.
I own an Toshiba 50hpx95 cinema series TV I would like to start getting some picture quality that I know its capable of, I would like to put up an antenna outside mounted to the side of my house I'm located in Windsor on approx 53 miles to Toledo OH and 3 miles to Detroit Mitch and 58 miles to Flint Mitch, I was wondering if I could get some input on what would be the best setup for my area to pull in the best and most channels available trees are about the only thing in my line of site to the north towards Detroit, I would like to Thanks in advance for all the stellar help I'm sure that will follow and look forward to being an active member of the forums as my knowledge increases

Welcome to the forums Slowdigits! I think you'd find what your looking for in the OTA forum (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=81). Though there is a butload of info there and I couldn't find a answer for you with a quick check, if you post your question there you'll get more responses. Here is a chart (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=37629) I found of the popular brands courtesy of Stampeder (another member). It's in the pdf link on the last post.

Hi all,

100% noob to Digital OTA here. My wife and I are expecting our third child this month and needed to save some $$$, so we cut the cable - absolutely no regrets (so far).

Our house has a very large antenna on a tower, and we get many, many channels from Ontario, Michigan, and Ohio through it, but we wanted to see if the quality improved with an ATSC tuner.

I bought an Insignia NS-DXA1 this afternoon at Best Buy in Port Huron for $59.99 and hooked it up to an older Sharp 13" in our bedroom. In no time, it was broadcasting images in a quality that (believe it or not) exceeded Cogeco's analog channels. I am floored!

We get...
2.1 WJBK (Fox)
4.1 WDIV (NBC)
4.2 WDIV-SD (looks like a Weather station)
7.1 WXYZ (ABC)
7.2 WXYZ (another Weather station)
20.1 WMYD (independent, I think)
20.2 WCSN (sports?)
38.1 WADL (independent)
38.2 WADL (independent)
50.1 WKBD (CW)
56.1 WTVS (PBS)
56.2 WTVS (PBS in SD)
56.3 WTVS (PBS Create)
62.1 WWJ (CBS)

Overall, I am very, very pleased. I was hoping to get one Canadian Digital OTA channel, but deeper digging into this SWO forum reveals that there are none to be had in our area. I'll have to check and see if the antenna I have has a rotor, which would allow me to access some programming from Toledo and Cleveland, which would be nice. I recommend the Insignia ATSC tuner - it is small, easy to use, and includes on-screen menus that are easy to use. It is a cool bonus that I can see a program guide as well - I was not aware of this possibility.

The ultimate purpose of this post is two-fold: first, to let others in the Chatham area see what can be had with an externally mounted antenna; second, to ask if anyone is aware of kids-only Digital OTA channels that I should be able to receive. My wife would love it if we could find a Treehouse-type channel for free, and I can't find a TVO Digital channel.

Thanks,
Eryn

As a quick follow-up...

I split my antenna's signal and ran half through the TV's coax input, and fed the other half to the Insignia ATSC tuner. I connected the tuner to the TV via the component inputs. With this done, I get my "perfect" digital American networks + weather + program guide, AND my NTSC channels (including all major Canadian networks).

I guess this means I'm covered as we creep slowly into the digital age. :)

Eryn

Thanks for the reports, racheryn, and those are excellent results! I'll put your info about the Insignia tuner into the ATSC Set Top Box thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42186

Best wishes for mom and child. :)

Hey Everyone,

A buddy of mine has a 32" LG t.v hooked up to his aerial which is on top of his house. He recently moved the t.v from one corner of the room to the other corner. Before he moved it, he was getting really good reception with his HD and analogue stations. Now that the t.v is moved, he says he is having a hard time pulling in the HD stations. The thing I don't get is, he didn't move the antennae just the actual t.v. The t.v is next to his washer and dryer and his hot water tank (located right on the other side of the wall.) Any ideas?

Hi cptcarter, is he getting any ATSC signal that he can lock onto? Which channels did he get before/after?

Before getting your answer, here is my first diagnosis:

he might have added a lot of coax cable to reach the new TV location, so there would be greater line loss and thus lower signal
maybe RG59 coax too, which suffers lots of line loss over long distances compared to RG6
maybe he added a splitter or two?
a cable break or similar connection problem
a strange electrical field in the new location caused by a nearby unshielded motor, weird effects of appliances or heaters, etc.

Is there anywhere local or just over the border where I can pick up a Channel Master Antenna This week in Detroit?

So I was just watching Jeopardy in HD.

Looked amazing on my 46" TV..

When I came back down, it wasnt full screen anymore.. more like shows that aren't in HD...jeopardy was in 4:3 I believe.. a few minutes earlier, it looked awesome on my TV>..


Is that my signal quality or something else?

Thanks

EDIT... The station now has My Name Is Earl on in HD. ASpect Ratio is correct...

Confusing.

What channel were you watching it on?

I was watching on CFTO-HD (Toronto) and through the entire 30 minutes (except for commercials) it was in 16:9 HD.

It could be the station you were watching it on forgot to switch back to HD after the commercials.

Also, in the future you may want to use write a more descriptive title for your post that describes the issue you are having. I have edited it for you.

Thanks.

I was watching it on WDIV Detroit.
That might have been the case.

I've noticed its happened before, another time I was watching a pistons game. I went an adjusted the antenna and it came back, so maybe it is my antenna. After all, its onyl 6 coat hangers and a 2X4!

No, the antenna or signal strength would not effect you losing HD resolution from 16:9 to SD 4:3. You either get the signal (and the picture) or you don't with digital OTA, and you get picture break-up (freezing), but not image resolution degradation.